BURNS LAKE

BURNS LAKE


Is a small rural village, located near the geographical center of British Columbia and on the Yellowhead Highway (Highway #16). Burns Lake was settled in the 1860s during construction of now-abandoned Collins Overland Telegraph line to Alaska, but wasn’t until 1914 and before the First World War (WWI), when the Grand Pacific Railway was constructed which gave the town its first population boom. The town of Burns Lake, serves a hub of the local forestry and logging industries and features five pubs, fine restaurants, a couple of realtors, stores and services, as well as a library and a hospital. Many fisherman are attracted to the community because it is considered to be the main gateway to many lakes including Francois, Tchesinkut (pronounced to-sink-it), Ootsa, and Decker Lakes, just to name a few in addition to the northern approach to Tweedsmuir Provincial Park which itself is British Columbia’s largest provincial park. Burns Lake was incorporated as a village in 1923 and is British Columbia’s largest village, even though it qualifies for town status under the Local Governments Act and there are many theories on how Burns Lake takes its name however legend has it that is that it either came from a telegraph line surveyor or a forest fire from the Borland Expedition era when members passed through here to survey a route for the overland telegraph, swept through the area and to whom many people refer the community as Burnt Lake. One key attraction in Burns Lake is the Anglican Church of St. John, first opened in 1923 and was made into a heritage building in 2002, this church was built by reverend J.H. Kerr on a pay-as-you-go basis, the first of its kind in British Columbia.

BURNS LAKE'S POPULATION: 2,726