Sumas Lake(Halq’eméyle: Semá:th Lake, Nooksack: Semáts Xácho7, (Level Place Lake)[2]) was a shallow freshwater lake surrounded by extensive wetlands that once existed in eastern Fraser Lowland, located on the south side of the Sumas River between the foothills of Sumas Mountain (not to be confused with the same-named American mountain) and Vedder Mountain. It disappeared after being artificially drained for flood control and land reclamation from 1920 to 1924, leaving behind a low-lying flatland known as the Sumas Prairie, which is nowadays drained by the Saar Creek (a lower tributary of the Sumas River) and the namesaked Sumas Drainage Canal.
The traditional territory of the Semá:th people (Sumas First Nation), a band of the Sto:lo Nation,[3] the lake lay midway between the present-day Canadian cities of Chilliwack and Abbotsford, British Columbia, and extended past the Canada–United States border into the territory east of Sumas, Whatcom County, Washington, necessitating a British Columbia Electric Railway trestle (which remains today as a dyke) across it from Huntingdon to the foot of Vedder Mountain.
The lake used to support sturgeon, trout, salmon, grizzly bears and geese, and its wetland habitat was a destination for migrating birds and a breeding ground for both fish and waterfowl. Flocks of white-fronted goose as well as whistling swan and Hutchins geese also used the lake. Its partially sandy banks also provided for sturgeon spawning grounds. The lake supplied food to the Sumas Band, and their life ways were intimately connected to it.[3][4][5][6] In the late 1800s, the lake drew the attention of various naturalists within the growing European population engaged in the work of cataloging the flora and fauna that they encountered where they settled.[7][8]
^Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Cultural Resources Department". NookSack Indian Tribe. Retrieved 2013-09-16.
^ abSmith, Emma; Verstraten, Katelyn (2013-05-06) [April 27, 2013]. "Sumas First Nation seeks compensation for its lost lake". The Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network. Archived from the original on 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
^"Chief's Message : Sumas First Nation". www.sumasfirstnation.com. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
^Thetáx, Chris Silver; Xémontélót, Carrielynn Victor; Foulds, Kris; Schneider, Laura (2020). Semá:th Xó:tsa_Sts'ólemeqwelh Sxó:tsa Great-Gramma's Lake(PDF). Abbotsford: Reach Gallery Museum. ISBN 9781988311319.[dead link]
^Woods, Jody R., Sumas Lake Transformations in Carlson, Keith; McHalsie, Albert Jules; Stó:lō Heritage Trust (2001). A Stó:lō-Coast Salish historical atlas. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 0-295-98044-3. OCLC 44940929. Retrieved 2021-11-19 – via WorldCat.
^Cameron, Laura Jean (1994). Openings to a lake: historical approaches to Sumas Lake, British Columbia (Thesis). University of British Columbia. doi:10.14288/1.0087484.
^Cameron, Laura (1997). Openings : a meditation on history, method, and Sumas Lake. UBC Academic Women's Association. [Vancouver, B.C.]: University of British Columbia, Academic Women's Association. ISBN 978-0-7735-6685-9. OCLC 180704109 – via WorldCat.
eastern Fraser Lowland, located on the south side of the Sumas River between the foothills of Sumas Mountain (not to be confused with the same-named American...
flooding. Sumas First Nation Sumas River SumasLake BCGNIS entry "Sumas Prairie" "What is SumasLake? 100 years ago, Abbotsford had a 134 sq km lake (PHOTOS)...
Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington. The Sumas River originates in the Sumas Mountain (American Sumas) in Whatcom County, Washington, with its tributary...
west and north to join the Sumas River just before that river's confluence with the Fraser River at the northeast end of Sumas Mountain. The river crosses...
The Sumas First Nation (Halkomelem: Sema:th) Sumalh or Sumas Indian Band is a band government of the Sto:lo people located in the Upper Fraser Valley region...
several books, including Openings: A Meditation on History, Method and SumasLake (1997) and Freud in Cambridge (2017; co-authored with John Forrester)...
half of the 19th Century. The lake is in the north part of Sumas Mountain Regional Park, on the north-facing slope of Sumas Mountain. From the starting...
Abbotsford), as well as Sumas, Washington. The area was once a 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) lake at the base of Sumas Mountain. SumasLake was drained in the early...
Stump Lake Sulphurous LakeSumasLake Summit Lake (Crooked River) Sustut Lake Swan Lake (Okanagan) St. Mary’s Lake (Salt Spring Island) Sheridan Lake Tagish...
operating hours. The Sumas Prairie had been created in the early 1920s by draining SumasLake, but on November 16, overflow from the Sumas and Nooksack rivers...
river" in the Tlingit language Sumallo River SumasLake, Sumas River, Sumas Mountain, and the old District of Sumas (now part of Abbotsford): from a Halqemeylem...
road proceeded to curve south to follow a path along the south shore of SumasLake and along the north base of the Vedder Mountains through Yarrow, Vedder...
northern parts of the drained SumasLake was mostly built. The cutoff bypassed the Yale Road which avoided the historical lake by running on its southern...
use for a major border crossing (at Sumas) was not usable due to the presence of SumasLake, a large shallow lake, now drained and turned into agricultural...
intersects SR 546 in a rural area and travels northeast along the Sumas River to Sumas. In Sumas, SR 547 ends at SR 9 and a spur route that serves trucks branches...
the combined river flows northwest, emerging from the valley south of the Sumas Mountain and flowing past Everson and Lynden. Near Everson, the river is...
approach to the international boundary, about 6 miles north of Sumas, Washington. Pitt Lake, one of the Fraser's last tributaries and among its largest,...
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