ALKALI LAKE

ALKALI LAKE

Is a small unincorporated First Nations community, located south of Williams Lake on the Fraser River Plateau, just north of both Dog Creek and the historic Gang Ranch. Alkali Lake became important as a way station for various trails that were used for a route to the Cariboo goldfields at Barkerville. Alkali Lake is the First Nations government of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) people and is known in Shuswap language as Esketemc, a subgroup of the Secwepemc people. Alkali Lake is home the one of the Canada’s longest-serving and one its first cattle ranches, and is located right on the lake and itself is home to a bird sanctuary which in turn, residents can see one of British Columbia’s rarest-seen birds, the White Pelican. Alkali Lake today, relies on ranching, and some form of tourism as its main economic activities and is named after large outcrops of Alkali on a large hillside that overlooks the community as well as the lake. The lake itself does not have any traces of Alkali in it.

ALKALI LAKE’S POPULATION: 363