Aleza Lake is immediately south of the eastern end of its namesake lake, and west of Upper Fraser, in central British Columbia. The community, which clusters the railway line and highway, comprises 15–20Prince George Citizen, 9 Oct 2015 full-time residents.
Transportation A trackside signpost marks the flag stop for Via Rail's Jasper – Prince Rupert train. The immediate Via Rail stops are Willow River to the west and Upper Fraser to the east.
History Lakes A prior channel of the Fraser River carved out the oxbow lakes, which comprise Little Lake (west), Aleza Lake (centre) and Hansard Lake (east). Little Lake was also called Hotchkiss Lake, after Thomas & Louise L. Hotchkiss, the first homesteaders on its shores. Long after the family departed, their abandoned log cabin remained standing at the western end of the lake. Memorable features of the medium-sized Aleza Lake were the white water lilies on the south shore and cranberry bogs on the north side.Prince George Citizen, 17 Jun 1926 In July 1913, G.U. Ryley, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) Land Commissioner, named the lake after a First Nations woman who lived in the area. She was either elderly, or the daughter of a chief, or a Carrier maiden,Prince George Citizen, 29 Sep 1983 or some combination of these attributes. A fast-flowing creek connected to the larger Hansard Lake, which in turn flowed into the Fraser. Like the former train station to the southeast, it was named after Hugh H. Hansard. During the late spring flooding of 1938,Prince George Citizen, 30 Jun 1938 the river flowed up the creek system temporarily creating a streak of brown sediment across the surface of Aleza Lake.
Railway Aleza Lake, like Newlands to its west and Hansard to its east, was an original train station (1914) on the GTP1914 Timetable. p. 4. (the Canadian National Railway after nationalization). It had no station agent. Aleza Lake lies at Mile 108.8, Fraser Subdivision (about Mile 198 during the line's construction). The railhead reached Mile 197 in December 1913.Fort George Herald, 10 Dec 1913 During the following years, some speculated the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway would continue southwest through the Wapiti Pass, until joining the GTP near Aleza Lake, with the goal of securing running rights westward over that line.Prince George Star, 20 Oct 1916
Herman G. Griese (1892–1940) of Shelley (misreported as Edward), section hand (track maintenance), died from a heart attack in the section-house while preparing to go to work.Prince George Citizen: 16 & 23 May 1940
After passing trains had destroyed 100 head of cattle on the Willow River-Aleza Lake stretch during 1958–63, the CNR erected protective fencing.Prince George Citizen: 1 Mar 1963 & 9 Oct 1963
A 160-foot washout west of Aleza Lake terminated a westbound passenger train at Upper Fraser in spring 1966. Towed through heavy mud and deep holes by bulldozers near Giscome, three buses brought eastbound passengers from Prince George, and returned with the westbound ones. To provisionally bridge the track bed, which had subsided 10 feet, CN crews worked around the clock for four days before reopening the line.Prince George Citizen: 29 & 30 Mar 1966 Restoration work occurred in 1980, 1984 and 1990.Prince George Citizen: 3 Jul 1980, 24 May 1984 & 12 Jul 1990
Built in 1914, the standard-design Plan 100-152 (Bohi's Type E) station building was sold in 1968. An unspecified freight and passenger shelter remained into the 2000s.Image: Prince George Citizen, 30 Aug 1974
The remaining passenger shelter went in 1996.Prince George Free Press, 21 Jan 1996
Trick Lumber/United Forest Prodt. stop (Mile 107.3) Service c.1963–1964 1964–1968 1968–1971 1964 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 441965 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261967 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 38 1968 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26 Passenger Flag stop Way freight Flag stop Flag stop Flag stop
Aleza Lake stop (Mile 108.8) Service 1914–c.1921 c.1921–1931 1932–1942 1943–c.1958 c.1959–1965 1965–1966 1966–1977 1977–present 1920 Timetable. Bulkley Valley Museum. p. 8. 1922 Timetable: Northern BC Archives. p. 81923 Timetable. p. 70.1925 Timetable. p. 105. Prince George Citizen: 12 & 19 Nov 19311932 Timetable. p. 58.1933 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.1935 Timetable. p. 60.1942 Timetable. p. 58. 1943 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 9.1945 Timetable. p. 61.1949 Timetable. p. 59. 1960 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 21–22 1972 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261973 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 18 1990 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 95–971992 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 103–105Recent timetables Passenger Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Flag stop Regular stop Flag stop Flag stop Way freight Flag stop probably Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop
Pioneers
From 1912 until his death, Jabez W. Smith (c.1863–1941) farmed on the northwestern shore of the lake.Prince George Citizen, 20 Mar 1941 His son and daughter-in-law, Sidney (Sid) J. (1886–1975) & Mary (1888–1979) Smith, joined him in 1924. Their strawberry crop was famous. Their homesteads were a walk around the east end of the lake from the village, but a shorter distance by boat in summer or across the ice in winter. Sid was primarily a trapper, and in 1932, they moved into the town site. Relocating to Vancouver in 1942, they returned in the late 1940s. Sid was a long time employee at S.B. Trick Lumber.Prince George Citizen: 9 Feb 1950, 18 Mar 1975, 21 Nov 1979 & 2 Apr 2013 Daughter Grace E. married Tom Dilworth in 1935.Prince George Citizen, 6 Feb 1986 Son Wilfrid married Alice McNeill,Prince George Citizen: 28 Apr 1949, 12 May 1949 & 18 Mar 1975 and they initially stayed.Prince George Citizen, 6 Oct 1979 Daughter Margaret R. joined the RCAF,Prince George Citizen, 30 Jun 1952 and married Frederick William Blake of Florida.Prince George Citizen, 28 Nov 1955 Son L. Archie married Kathleen (Kathy) M. Neil (1930–2014) of Giscome in 1950, where the couple settled.Prince George Citizen: 16 & 23 Feb 1950; & 25 Nov 2014
Alexander (Alex) (1880–1965)Prince George Citizen, 3 Aug 1966 & Sarah (1890–1974)Prince George Citizen, 16 Apr 1974 McDowell, who arrived in 1914, raised their 15 children in the homestead southwest of the west switch (Mile 108.9). The couple retired to Prince George in 1957.Prince George Citizen, 11 Sep 1961 Daughter Violet married Arnold John Brandner (1908–68) (Melvin's brother) , but the couple remained only a few years at Aleza Lake.Prince George Citizen: 15 Dec 1938, 15 Jan 1942 & 28 Oct 1943 Son Ernest (Ernie) A. (1929–2017)Prince George Citizen, 26 Sep 2017 married Coreen Gervais.Prince George Citizen, 11 Oct 1955 The couple stayed at least until the end of the 1990s,Prince George Citizen: 24 Dec 1957, 26 Jan 1981 & 17 Jun 1998 and likely beyond.Prince George Citizen, 31 Jul 2014 Daughter Ida May married Haydn Wilson and the couple resided in Prince George.Prince George Citizen, 12 Dec 1955
J.A. Davidson was the inaugural postmaster 1915–20. His small store, located adjacent to the west switch, closed when the family left the area. When Rev. W.J. Patton visited in the summer of 1918, he calculated the population as 50.Prince George Citizen, 26 Aug 1958 (14) Around 1917, Andrew (Andy) (c.1884–1943)Prince George Citizen, 2 Jul 1942 & Mary (c.1884–1942) Young, Roy Billings, and Mac McGibbons, settled on plots south in the hills, but they abandoned these holdings by 1920. Only the Youngs resettled in the village, living south of the tracks at Mile 108.6. A section hand for the railway, Andy maintained a small farm,Prince George Citizen, 30 Oct 1924 and was the school janitor. On one occasion, a train collided with their handcar putting Andy in a coma for weeks and in hospital for months. He served as the local commissioner under the Provincial Elections Act.Prince George Citizen, 10 Apr 1928 Mary was the Sunday school teacher, the unofficial nurse,Prince George Citizen, 25 Mar 1926 and boarded teachers. When the railway transferred Andy to Fraser Lake, the family relocated.
Lorne A.S. (1884–1955) & Nita M. (1896–1947) Lyle arrived in 1917. Their four daughters raised there were Ethelwynne, Lorita, Nelda and Lois.Prince George Citizen: 30 Jan 1947 & 8 Sep 1955 Buying a central lot south of the tracks at Mile 108.7, Lorne erected a two-storey store, which he ran (1918–21; 1923–50), and became postmaster (1920–21; 1923–50). Commonly, the postmaster in such towns was also a storeowner. Selling the store to Joseph Thomas Norquay (1874–1962), postmaster 1922–23, the Lyles travelled.Prince George Citizen, 30 Jun 1922 Following customer dissatisfaction and unpaid purchase instalments, Lyle repossessed the business in 1923.Prince George Leader, 22 Feb 1923 The living quarters occupied the upper level and the rear of the lower level. He constructed a wooden sidewalk out to the tracks. The later enlargement of the store complex included additional buildings for a butchery, flour and feed storage, a warehouse, woodshed, and workshop. The record selection for the store's gramophone entertained customers throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Lyle acted as the unofficial mayor.
Ethelwynne (Ethel) (1917–2011) married Neil M. MacArthur (1913–2011),Prince George Citizen, 28 Aug 1941 a logging truck driver for S.B. Trick Lumber. After relocating to Prince George in 1949, they owned and operated several successful construction companies, and Ethel later wrote a slender volume outlining a history of Aleza Lake.Prince George Citizen: 29 Sep 1983, 13 Oct 2011 & 22 Nov 2011 Lorita married Gordon Earl Larson,Prince George Citizen, 29 Nov 1945 but they left in the early 1950s.Prince George Citizen: 13 Mar 1947, 26 Jun 1947, 2 Oct 1947, 27 Jul 1950 & 26 Apr 1978 After Nelda M. married William (Bill) Earl Hein, they settled in Prince George,Prince George Citizen: 13 Mar 1947 & 1 Dec 1949 as did Lois L. on marrying William Charles Thompson.Prince George Citizen, 17 Dec 1953
The 1920 population estimate was 150. South of the west switch, the former small cemetery occupies the hillside. Lorne Lyle provided this land in 1919, when the influenza epidemic took several residents' lives. Over the years, carpenters used the store workshop to manufacture coffins. The only identifiable grave is for Winnifred Byrne, who died in childbirth, the date unknown. Frederick "Eugene" Schmolke (c.1896–1935) was a drowning victim. Containing about 20 graves, records no longer exist for the other burials. Some restoration work took place at the site in the late 1980s.Prince George Citizen, 6 Jul 1988
A number of homesteaders came after World War I. Arthur (Art) G. (1887–1953) & Glory A. Williams operated a small dairy farm on the north shore of the lake, which supplied the community until they left in the late 1930s. Art was the section foreman for the railway.Prince George Citizen: 14 Sep 1933 & 23 Apr 1936 Their children were Betty (1920–89), Dorothy, and A. Bentley (1924–87). Betty would later recount their frugal childhoods. Harry Jackson, who farmed on the south shore,Prince George Citizen, 26 Mar 1919 was known for his oat crop and nine-foot high timothy-grass with 10-inch heads.Prince George Citizen, 10 Dec 1920 In 1930, he drowned near the Monkman Pass.Prince George Citizen, 11 Sep 1930