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The Lakelse hot springs are located approximately 24 highway kilometres south of Terrace and 40 highway kilometres north of Kitimat. Depending on your delineations, approximately thirteen hot springs of varying sizes can be found to the east of Lakelse Lake, for which they have traditionally been named. Lakelse is an anglicisation of Lax Gyels, the Sm'algyax word for the site of freshwater mussels. The main spring is located at 54º 21' 30" N by 128º 32' 28" W, and about a dozen smaller hot springs are located on the surrounding property.The temperature of the main hot spring ranges between 56 and 80 degrees Celsius, with outlying reports of 86 degree Celsius temperatures sampled at the centre of the thirty-metre diameter pool. The main spring's total output seems to vary seasonally and year to year, ranging from a low of 489 litres per day to a high of 772 litres per day. The mineral content of the main hot spring was sampled in 1950 as follows (in parts per million): 46.6 calcium, 0.5 magnesium, 320.1 sodium, 13.2 bicarbonate as carbonate, 2.4 carbonate, 457 sulphate, 215.9 chloride, 3.3 fluoride, 50.6 silica, negligible alumina and iron oxide, no nitrate, and 1186 total dissolved solids. When sampled in 1950, there did not appear to be any significant amount of lithium in the hot springs, but the Geological Survey of Canada reported a high lithium content of 10.2 parts per million in 1973. The hot springs water is potable and widely lauded as odourless. The Lakelse hot springs are rumoured to be the second largest hot springs in North America by volume, after Palm Springs.
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Main Pool of the Lakelse Hot Springs Prior to Any Development.1907
Lakelse Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Caption on verso reads: 'Lakelse Hot Springs in Original State 1907. Before any Development.'
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The Lakelse hot springs have always been an important site of community and health. The surrounding people have stories about using the hot springs and the surrounding warm clay for healing. Addie Turner, of Kitsumkalum, recalled in a 2004 interview that the hot springs at Lakelse Lake used to be a kind of 'native hospital.' Born in 1921, Addie remembered going to the hot springs with her grandparents, Emma and Charles Nelson, who originally helped George Little (later the pre-emptor of the Terrace townsite) in the early 1900s.4
Emma and Charles Nelson.Early 20th Century
Kitsumkalum, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Emma and Charles Nelson resided at Kitsumkalum in the early 1900s and assisted settlers in the region, including George Little, pre-emptor of the Terrace townsite.
The Nelsons brought their granddaughter Addie Turner (nee Nelson) to visit the hot springs.
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Reports from the turn of the century show that mail carriers broke up their two- to three-week dog-sled routes from Kitimat to Hazelton by warming up by the hot springs pools. Hank Boss, the Dominion Government Telegraph operator at Kitselas in the early 1900s, learned about the Lakelse hot springs from the mail mushers stopped at Kitselas. Sensing potential, Boss purchased half of Johnstone's pre-emption of the hot springs property for $175. John Bruce Johnstone was similarly familiar with the hot springs land from working as a government surveyor and at the nearby Lakelse fish hatcheries. Johnstone officially pre-empted the land by 1906.6
Hatchery Men Spawning Sockeye at the Mouth of Williams Creek.1910-1919
Lakelse Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Caption on verso reads: 'Hatchery People Spawning Sockeye 1910-19. Mouth of Williams Ck.'
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The Initial Settlement of Terrace, at Approximately the Same Time as Johnstone's Pre-emption.Early 1900s
Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Caption on front reads: `The Beginning of Terrace. Future City On The G.T.P. Kitsumkalum + Lakelse Valleys Meet Here.`
Photographer note on front reads: `F. BUTTON PHOTO, Pr. RUPERT, No. 279.`
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Early View of Downtown Terrace, at the Same Time as Johnstone's First Lodge at Lakelse Hot Springs.1912-1916
Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
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Hank Boss and Bruce Johnstone began clearing land at Lakelse Lake with the expectation that Kitimat would be chosen as the western railway terminus. In 1910, Johnstone built a roadhouse next to the Lakelse hot springs to house the anticipated rail traffic. When the railway was routed to Prince Rupert, instead, Johnstone was undeterred, if disappointed.10
View of Lakelse Lake from Copper Mountain.Copper Mountain, Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
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The original lodge at Lakelse Hot Springs was located about 1,200 feet from the main hot spring, so water was transported to wooden tubs in an open gravity-fed 'V' trough made of two boards nailed together. 'You had the tub right there and the water was going by it so when you wanted water to come into the tub you'd just take out a board on the side and push it across there and the water would just come right into the tub,' David Bowen-Colthurst recalled.12
Bruce and Mae Johnstone with Others at Original Lodge at Lakelse Hot Springs.1910s
Lakelse Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Caption on verso reads: 'Mr + Mrs Bruce Johnstone third and fourth from left pictured in front of original Hot Springs Hotel built in 1910.'
Secondary caption on verso reads: 'Lakelse Lodge at Hot Springs Built in 1910 when Railway was being built To Kitimat from Telkwa thru Telkwa Pass.'
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Bruce Johnstone Ice Fishing at the South End of Lakelse Lake.1910-1920
Lakelse Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Caption on front reads: 'BRUCE JOHNSTONE. 1910-20.'
Caption on verso reads: 'J.B. Johnstone fishing South end Spring of Year 1910-20.'
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Visitors to the Lakelse Hot Springs carried their luggage or pushed it in a wheelbarrow along a split cedar plank walk that spanned the half-mile between the hot springs and Lakelse Lake. |
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