- Boat Encampment
Boat Encampment was a rendezvous and staging-point for the
Hudson's Bay Company in the early19th Century and later a locality by that name in the Canadian province ofBritish Columbia . It was located at the "top" of the Big Bend of the Columbia north of the city ofRevelstoke, British Columbia and southeast of Valemount. Its site today is beneath the waters ofKinbasket Lake Reservoir , formed by theMica Dam of theColumbia River Treaty .History
The origin and name of Boat Encampment dates to David Thompson's exploration of the
Athabasca Pass route to theColumbia River during the winter of 1810-1811. Thompson and a small party ofvoyageurs crossed the Continental Divide at Athabasca Pass in early January, 1811 and soon reached the Columbia River. After a brief attempt to travel south toKootanae House they returned to the mouth of the Canoe River to wait out the winter. Unable to build acanoe out of birch bark Thompson and his men spent five weeks constructing a wooden clinker-built boat. This was a task they were not skilled in and it took a great deal of trial-and-error. Thompson named the site Boat Encampment after this experience in boat-building. [cite book |last= Nisbet |first= Jack |title= Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America |year= 1994 |publisher= Sasquatch Books |isbn= 1-57061-522-5 |pages= pp. 177-178]Boat Encampment was an important waystation during the twice-annual company "Express" between
Fort Vancouver andYork Factory , and as a setting figures in the tragic story of theDalles des Morts .It remained on British Columbia roadmaps and town registries until its inundation.
References
*BCGNIS|52160|Boat Encampment
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