Irrigation Lake is another one of those lakes that seems to be part of the “cancel culture” fad that loves to re-write history. Having spent almost 70 years in our beautiful Bulkley Valley I want to set the record straight. I have to plead ignorance on where the name Dunalter came from, so if you know message me and I will amend this article. The District of Houston acquired the 44 acres of Crown land surrounding the lake to develop a public park. It is now a well-used recreation playground for many activities including fishing.
The origin of Irrigation Lake as passed on to me by people who lived in those times was that Jack Price owned the farmland, he created a small dam on the runoff creek that ran through his property, to use to water his cattle and farm. As the tale goes, some beavers moved in and raised the dam to become a very large pond, so Jack figured by raising the dam some more he could hold quite a bit of water. That is how the story goes, it was a joint effort between Jack and the beavers.
That dam was holding almost all the same water it holds today, we swam in there in the 60’s and the people who owned what is now known as Rough Acres pretty much allowed any person who cleaned up after themselves to go swimming there.
A new dam was built in 2014 and almost all of the funding was given by locals from Houston, some donated from Vanderhoof & Districts Co-op, as well as Canfor and also help from the Rough Acres who donated the use of water pumps. Engineer Carl Pentilchuk, who designed the new dam plans, was hired to oversee the project with funding from the Bulkley Valley Credit Union. He flew in September 28 from Kamloops at a reduced rate given by Central Mountain Air, lodged in a room donated by the Pleasant Valley Motel and enjoyed donated meals from the Pleasant Valley Restaurant. The use of equipment was all donated from Houston businesses, including a compactor from John Himech Logging, an excavator from Andy Meints Contracting, a rock truck from Groot Bros Contracting, bulldozer from Tom Neufeld Trucking, and a small excavator from Co-ed Enterprises. News clippings from Houston Today
Facilities:
- Warf: No
- Boat Launch: No
- RV Friendly: look at the video
- Tables: Yes
- Toilets: Yes
- Fees: No
- Campsites: No
- Google Earth KML Irrigation Lake (note unzip first)
- This is a daytime swim and fishing spot.
- Motor restricted lake.
- This is also a regularly stocked lake.
Fish Species: Rainbow trout and Cutthroat trout
Location:
If your coming from the east side of Houston, follow Highway 16 west, about 15 kilometres past Houston, to a sign reading “Irrigation Lake”. Turn left (west) onto a small road and follow for about half a kilometre to the lake.
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