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|
 Photo: Andy Cleven |
 Photo: Andy Cleven |
| The
Bridge River Townsite at Shalalth - known in its time simply as
"Bridge River" or "camp" to residents, or more recently as "South
Shalalth" after its BCR station even though it is due west of
Shalalth proper - was originally built in the 1920s with the first phase
of construction on the Bridge River hydroelectric project. Its less
prosaic name within the valley today is the "BC Hydro Townsite";
veterans of the Hydro era and valleyites in general often refer to Shalalth and the
Portage together simply as "Seton". These pictures appear
to have been taken in the late 1940s at the time of my father's
arrival to work on the project; the old (and once fairly elegant) Bridge River Hotel - the large
building in the centre of the photo on the left - burned down shortly
afterwards. Of all the many buildings visible, only the PGE (now BCR) "station" (the small shack by the
tracks in the foreground) and the company's "Guest House" (immediately
above the station in this view) were around by the late 1950s - and
still survive today; some of the houses hidden in the trees might
also have remained. The large building to the left of the station
I'm not familiar with, but my guess is it was part of the railway
company's offices or maybe staff accommodations, as this was a busy
railyard in its time. The Guest House, just above it, was
originally the superintendant's house and used for visiting VIPs; we
lived in it for a short while around 1960 when our more modern house
on top of the hill was being refurbished, and I'll always remember the
size of the walk-in closet in the master bedroom, which was larger
than the living rooms in nearly any other house in camp - or seemed to be to a
five-year-old boy, at any rate. Seton
Lake is immediately to the left in these pictures, in fact straight
behind the viewpoint; I can guarantee that each and every window in
these pictures enjoys an absolutely unforgettable view, as anyone
who has ever lived in "Bridge River" can confirm. For the
wartime occupants of the barracks-like buildings that are the main
subject of the photo at right, it would have been a sad one - these
were the internment camp for Japanese relocated
from the Coast. Unlike many other such camps, though, most of
those in the Bridge River Country did not
have barbed-wire fencing, since none was required given the isolation
of the Seton and Bridge
River Valleys. Other camps were at Moha,Minto City, Gold
Bridge and Bralorne, as well as at Lillooet and other places in the Fraser Canyon. |
 Aerial pic from Photos by Kat |
This
nearly straight-down view of the townsite helps give the location some
perspective and scale within the grander scheme of things locally, i.e.
how small it is in the surrounding landscape, and where it's situated at
the base of Mission Pass; the full
image is on the Mission Mountain Road page,
showing the rest of the pass. The townsite is at left of course,
with the main Shalalth station area
and the western end of the Rancherie
at lower right. |
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This view from the top of the No. 1 Penstocks gives a good view of the Townsite as it was in the late 1940s, although quite a number of houses are hidden in the trees at right. The huts of the Japanese internment camp are at lower left; I'm not sure but I think these may have originally been built to intern those arrested during widespread labour unrest in the Lower Mainland in the 1930s, or might have even been workmen's barracks from the first phase of hydro construction in the 1920s. The Bridge River Hotel is just above them, with the Guest House and two super's houses adjacent to the tennis court and community hall in the upper right quarter of the picture. |
| By
my time, the internment camp buildings were gone and between them and
the two super's houses were two rows of newer homes in the same style as
those of the supers. The oval to the right of the hotel was still
there, and like most of the private yards in Camp was a very well-kept
flower-garden. Where the internment camp was were a few
rancher-style small prefabs, others of which were found elsewhere up by
the Community Hall. |
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This
is the full-frame version of the closeup just above, and shows the
viewpoint's location at the upper end of the No.
1 Penstock, where the portal from the original tunnel bored through Mission Mountain from the Bridge River
emerges from the mountainside. The tailrace showing as a stream
of white water into Seton Lake is from the original 1920s-vintage
powerhouse; this flow was diverted to Powerhouse
No. 1 when it was completed (here under constrution at the left edge
of the photo). The benchland at upper right was where our house
and those of other management families were built during the mid-1950s. |
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| I
was a bit stunned to find these in the family photo collection, and it
took me a second to recognize the location, which is of course just
above the townsite - Powerhouse No. 1 can
be seen in the corner of the bay in the left-hand picture, and the upper
fields of the Rancherie can be seen in the right-hand one (an
enlargement of this can be found on the Shalalth
page. A closer look at the right-hand photo (available by
clicking on this one) shows that Powerhouse
No. 2 was nearly completed, putting the date of this flight sometime
around 1960, which surprises me given the rough shape the switchyard
area is in; it looks more like it's just been freshly clear-cut but by
this time it would have been cleared for at least ten years. |
|
Life in "Camp" |
|
| This set of pictures is largely from our family albums, but I've tried to avoid making it specific to my family; contributions from other families and individuals are more than welcome and I hope in the long run this may be its own set of pages within this website. The community life of the Bridge River Project communities was quite special and - I think I have to say - unforgettable. Although I was only very young, I remember what seemed like an endless stream of parties, whether for poker, baby showers, or children's birthday parties, dances and movies in the community hall, and even beach life. No doubt there was a lot of hard work going on, too, but children were luckily immune from most of that. Actual adults from those days no doubt have many more stories and descriptions than I could come up with, so please send them in. | |
 BC Archives # I-20556 |
I came across this picture in the BC Provincial Archives. The tennis court - "tennis club" as the promotional caption included in the credit for this image - must be an earlier one than the one that I remember and that is there today, which is closer to the large house in the background and aligned the other way. I think - I'm just not sure so if a local resident happens on this and can correct me, please do. The community hall which stands on the site where the court pictured is must have been built after 1946, when this picture was taken. The tennis court (the one I remember) was often flooded in midwinter to make a hockey and skating rink, but this has not been done for some years now due to the valley's warmed-up climate. To think that at one time people used to skate on Seton Lake! But no longer.... |
| The large house is commonly known as "The Guest House" and was run by the company (the BC Electric Railway Company at the time; now BC Hydro) as lodging for in-residence and visiting company officials. The larger Bridge River Hotel is out of sight in this picture behind the Guest House and would have been still standing at this time; the small building behind the trees is a private house, one of the larger ones in Camp as I recall. The sunlit patch of mountainside immediately behind the Guest House is where the Mission Mountain Road runs up over to Terzaghi Dam; the hillock atop Mission Ridge near the centre of the picture is the first summit of that ridge, just east of the Microwave. | |
 BC Archives # I-20555 |
The miniature castle in the garden at left was apparently built by one of the Japanese internees during World War II. It - or an enlarged version of it, perhaps, still stands in the campsite today. The lush profusion of growth in the foreground gives an idea of the diversity of gardening in the village, and of the favourable climate the valley enjoys. The gardens of the townsite are still fairly well-maintained, although many houses and yards are now abandoned or disappeared. The diversity of flora introduced by hydro company families and the Japanese internees, plus the locally-indigenous greenery, was propagated to other hydro townsites at Buntzen, Stave Falls and Ruskin as company employees relocated, taking cuttings and bulbs with them. The result is that Hydro townsites have a distinct botanical selection, with a range of flowers and shrubs quite different from those of adjoining communities. |
 Photo: Andy Cleven |
Photo: Andy Cleven |
The Japanese Internment in Seton |
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| During the Depression
construction of the hydro project was halted and the townsite
half-abandoned. During World War II, however, Bridge River's many
family homes and bunkhouses were converted into an internment camp
for dispossessed Japanese-Canadians from the coast, as were many other locations in the Bridge River-Lillooet
Country and elsewhere in BC's Interior. There were 3800
within the Bridge River-Lillooet Country alone. Unlike some
other internment sites, however, fences and guards were not "needed"
at Bridge River because of the valley's isolation - egress was only
via the lake and rail line, and the only road led only to the upper Bridge River goldfields (a dead end). One
effect of the internees' sojourn was that the many existing gardens
in the townsite were improved and enriched with a wide variety of
species, especially of the "rock garden" genre, including the castle
garden shown further below; to this day the townsite has a unique
plant biome although the "garden village" quality of the place is no
longer so perfect and the gardens are not so well-kept as they were,
and in places they have grown completely wild. Local lore has it that
the internees bred octopi in aquaria (as a delicacy) and at the end
of the war released them into Seton Lake
where they are said to have survived to this day. Many of the
Japanese worked for the Evans
Transportation Company as well as for the commercial orchards and
market gardens of the Portage.
Unlike many other much more grim internment camps in other parts of BC,
fences and guards were not needed at Bridge River, nor were there any
restrictions on daily movement other than that imposed by the harsh
facts of the valley's geography. The only way in or out was via the lake or the rail
line, and the only road out of the valley led only to the upper Bridge River goldfields (a dead end). Of course survivors of
the experience must have mixed feelings about the experience, but I
would welcome any input from survivors or their family or friends to
give an account of those years, and about who people were and what
their stories of this time were. |
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