Image: Shalalthview1

Description: This photo was taken by my father Endre Cleven upon his arrival in Shalalth c.1946, and has been part of the family collection. I am hereby donating it to Wikipedia. It depicts the "white" part of Shalalth to "the Point"; the "Rancherie" - the First Nations residential area, lies beyond, although all the lands shown are part of the Indian Reserves associated with the Seton Lake First Nation (or Seton Lake Band) of the St'at'imc (Lillooet) people which were "leased" by the original power company when construction began in the 1920s (but abandoned until after WWII since the onset of the Great Depression in 1929). The pasture at upper left is the first of several on benchlands above the lake. Between it and the residential area on the point is the former mission school, now the Tlak-malh-kakla School, operated by by the band, and a band-run grocery store and cafe. The buildings on the closer point are industrial facilities associated with the Bridge River Power Project, the first powerhouse of which ("No. 1 Powerhouse") is just out of sight below the bottom of the frame. Those on the point are the train station and various warehouses and offices of the shipping companies that were located around it when this was the railhead-"port" for the Bridge River Country goldfields, which are reached by a 3500' pass the torturous climb beginning immediately in the cluster of buildings. The buildings on the shoreline are various hostelries and private recreation cabins, as this had been a small resort since the opening of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, which runs along the shoreline towards Lillooet (starting in North Vancouver). Among the larger of the shoreline buildings was a small hotel named Shalalth House, run by "Ma" Struthers. It and the other recreational properties there enjoyed the view of a reflection-form in the water of the opposing point, which formed a "Totem Pole" which was somewhat famous in local tourism in its day; it has since been destroyed by the building of Powerhouse No.2 in that area and the addition of industrial buildings along that shoreline, as well as the raising of the lake by about 10' as a result of the power project's transformation of the lake into a reservoir to feed the Seton Canal and the Lillooet Powerhouse. Another hostelry, still standing today though only a set of private ly-owned cabins and what is left of the original lodge building, is out of sight on the back side of the nearer point, and was called Shalalth Lodge. The switchback intersection in the foreground leads up to Bridge River Elementary School (then a different building than today's) and connects with the road to the pass from the train station/freight companies area, joining it about a mile farther up the mountainside. The pass, aka "Mission Mountain" (Mission Mountain Road), was for a while busy 24 hours a day with heavy equipment for the mines and the parts of the hydro project over the mountain (see Terzaghi Dam and Lajoie Dam, passenger transport, and private traffic, despite over 47 switchbacks (less than 30 today....) and incredibly bad road conditions year-round. This route was the only access from the mines and the upper Bridge River valley until diversion of the river made possible the building of a road from the upper country to Lillooet via the Bridge River Canyon, which begins just below Terzaghi Dam.
Title: Shalalthview1
Credit: Own work
Author: User:Skookum1
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No