HISTORICAL NEWS SEARCH - Government of British Columbia

Sometime around 1820, a large rockslide formed a blockage in the Bulkley River at Hagwilget Canyon, 1.5
km upstream from its confluence with the Skeena River. (Evans (unpublished data).
Father Adrien Gabriel Morice, OMI describes the event as follows, “a large piece of rocky cliff overhanging
the Bulkley (River) at a location now called Ackwilgate (Hagwilget)… having fallen across the stream, this barred it so
completely that it formed a cataract of sufficient height to prevent the fish from getting up to the Moricetown fall.
Threatened with starvation, the western Babines went in a body, armed cap-a-pie, and forcibly took the new terminus
from its (Kitshkan) owners. In the course of time, the rock which was to give a name to the new place (Fallen Rock or
Rocher DeBoule) wore away to such an extent that the salmon could return to their former haunts up the river, but the
Babines or Ackwilgates have since retained possession of both Fisheries.” ( Morice 1904).
Ca. 1852
Event type: Glacial outburst flood.
Precipitation: Not applicable.
Source: deLagune 1972 (p. 276); Clague and Rampton 1982; Champagne-Aishihik Band 1988 (p. 6); Clarke 1989;
Gabrielse and Yorath 1992; Evans (unpublished data) (p. 7).
In the northwest part of the Cordillera, the oral traditions of the Southern Tuchone people record a disastrous
outburst flood in the St. Elias Mountains caused by the draining of Lake Alsek formed by the damming of Alsek River by
Lowell Glacier (Clague and Rampton 1982; Champagne-Aishihik Band 1988). *1) In Neoglacial times, Lake Alsek filled
and emptied several times. Its actual size depended primarily on the geometry of the Lowell Glacier ice dam (Clague and
Rampton 1982).
In its last phase, about 1850, the pool elevation of Lake Alsek was approximately 595 m above sea level (a.s.l.). At
this level, the lake was almost 200 m deep and 100 km long, extending into the Kaskawulsh and Dezadesh River valleys
flooding the present site of Haines Junction (588 m a.s.l) (Clague and Rampton 1982; Champagne-Aishihik Band 1988).
Around 1852, the glacier dam broke (deLagune 1972) suddenly releasing the water of Lake Alsek into the Alsek
River. The glacial outburst flood, involving an approximate volume of 4,700 million m 3 (Clarke 1989), “destroyed several
Indian villages and killed countless people” (Champagne-Aishihik Band 1988) downstream of Lowell Glacier, including a
settlement at the confluence of the Alsek and Tatshenshini rivers (Evans (unpublished data).
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*1) Gabrielse and Yorath (1992) define the Canadian Cordillera as, “extending from the base of the Continental slope
in the west to the western limit of undeformed strata underlying the Interior Plains, and from the Beaufort Sea in the
north to the international boundary in the south.”
May 16, 1866
Event type: Landslide.
Precipitation: Not applicable.
Source: Cariboo Sentinel, May 17, 1866; Evans (unpublished data) (p. 5) Case History 1.
On May 16 around 3 p.m., a landslide came down near Barkerville. The event was described in the Cariboo
Sentinel, making it the first located newspaper report of a damaging landslide in the Cordillera. (Evans (unpublished
data).
“…. the denizens of Barkerville were startled at hearing a very unusual noise…. it was observed that a large
portion of the earth on the Western hill side (sic) behind town was on the move carrying everything before it, until it
was obstructed by the Hibernia Co.’s shaft house… water and mud forced an entrance through the back door of
(Messrs. Floyd and Co.’s store) and swept right through it into the street destroying a great deal of goods. Messrs.
Floyd and Co.’s loss will amount to $500. (Cariboo Sentinel, May 17, 1866).
June 17, 1866
Event type: Debris flow.
Precipitation: Not available.
Source: Evans (unpublished data).
On June 17, a debris flow occurred at Van Winkle, near Quesnel. The water and debris flooded houses and buried
a street. The debris flow was released by the breach of a landslide dam in Van Winkle Creek.
July 1875
Event type: Spring runoff flooding.
Precipitation: Not applicable.
Source: British Columbian, July 11, 1875.
The Fraser River at Queslnemouth (Quesnel) rose 4 ft. (1.2 m) higher than was ever known before. It reached 33
ft. (9.9 m) above the low water mark, flooding several warehouses and other buildings.
July 5-7, 1891
Event type: Landslide dam failure and fatal slides.
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