The History of Highway 8 FOLLOWING THE NICOLA RIVER FROM MERRITT TO SPENCES BRIDGE— THROUGH FLOOD AND FIRE
BY
MURPHY SHEWCHUK
A
trip along Highway 8 and the Nicola River from Merritt to Spences Bridge could be considered a prime route for a study in dry-land contrasts. Forested hills and green hayfields gradually change to sagebrush, bunchgrass and scraggly pine as you progress steadily north-westward.
CARVED BY GLACIERS
During the last period of glaciation, which ended some 12,000 years ago, almost all of British Columbia was covered by massive sheets of ice, often reaching a thickness of more than 1,500 metres. Only the highest peaks escaped the grinding action of this flowing mass of destruction. The Thompson Plateau region was ripped open and reformed, leaving scars that the dry climate and open grasslands have preserved. As the glaciers melted in the Nicola Basin, three glacial lakes were formed. The first, Glacial Lake Quilchena, drained southward into what is now the Similkameen Valley. The second, Glacial Lake Hamilton, was formed when the ice plug retreated in the Salmon River Valley permitting eastward drainage through the Douglas Plateau to what is now the 54 • B C M A G
Province of British Colmbia