The Beaverdell Range is a subrange of the
Okanagan Highland
The Okanagan Highland is an elevated hilly plateau area in British Columbia, Canada, and the U.S. state of Washington (where it is spelled Okanogan Highlands). Rounded mountains with elevations up to above sea level and deep, narrow valleys ar ...
in the
Southern Interior of British Columbia, located between the
West Kettle and
Kettle Rivers, and running nearly due south from
Big White Mountain, which is its highest summit, and the highest in the Okanagan Highland, and lies near the head of the Kettle.
The Beaverdell Range gets its name from the community of
Beaverdell, which lies on its southwest flank midway along the West Kettle River, which was also the route of the
Kettle Valley Railway
The Kettle Valley Railway was a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated across southern British Columbia, west of Midway running to Rock Creek, then north to Myra Canyon, down to Penticton over to Princeton, Coalmont, B ...
, now a biking and hiking trail that is part of the
Trans-Canada Trail.
The range is of considerable mineralogical interest as it is known to contain large deposits of
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
, for which British Columbia has had for many years a mining
moratorium. Residents of the area oppose uranium mining, although the history of the region is connected with various small gold rushes.
References
*
Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia entry
Mountain ranges of British Columbia
Boundary Country
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