Germansen River
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The Germansen River (formerly a.k.a. Germansen Creek) is in the Omineca region of central
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada. Flowing through Germansen Lake, the river is a major tributary of the Omenica River, which in turn enters
Williston Lake Williston Lake is a reservoir created by the W. A. C. Bennett Dam which is located in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Geography The lake fills the basin of the upper Peace River, backing into the Rocky Mountain Trench which ...
. Surrounded by the spread of the
Swannell Ranges The Swannell Ranges are a mountain range between the Finlay and Nation Rivers and between the Hogem Ranges and the Finlay Ranges of northern British Columbia, Canada. It has an area of 22932 km2 and is a subrange of the Omineca Mountains wh ...
, the lake is south of Plughat Mountain and north of the Germansen Range, which contains Mount Germansen.


Name origin

In July 1870, James Germansen discovered gold on the creek/river. The earliest newspaper mention of the creek name is October 1870. During the
Omineca Gold Rush The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada, in the Omineca Country, Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush did not begin until late in 1869 with the disc ...
of the 1860s, James was known as Old Hogem, which gave the name to a mining camp on the Omineca River, where he charged exorbitant prices at his general store. In 1868, he was the first to travel from that part of the interior to
Fort Simpson Fort Simpson (Slavey language: ''Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́'' "place where rivers come together") is a village, the only one in the entire territory, in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community is located on an ...
.


River course

The Germansen River is part of the
Rocky Mountain Trench The Rocky Mountain Trench, also known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench, is a large valley on the western side of the northern part of North America's Rocky Mountains. The Trench is both visually and cartographically a ...
, where glacial and alluvial deposits make up riverbeds. Multiple
till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
units in this river suggest that several oscillations of the ice front occurred in this region during the advance phase of the LGP. Some of the low lying benches and
bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...
s possess no overlaying boulder clay, whereas other bedrock benches are overlain with up to of
auriferous The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue g ...
glacial gravels, topped by up to of boulder clay. Rock outcrops are
greenschist Greenschists are metamorphic rocks that formed under the lowest temperatures and pressures usually produced by regional metamorphism, typically and 2–10 kilobars (). Greenschists commonly have an abundance of green minerals such as Chlorite ...
,
silicified In geology, silicification is a process in which silica-rich fluids seep into the voids of Earth materials, e.g., rocks, wood, bones, shells, and replace the original materials with silica (SiO2). Silica is a naturally existing and abundant com ...
sericite Sericite is the name given to very fine, ragged grains and Aggregate (geology), aggregates of white (colourless) micas, typically made of muscovite, illite, or paragonite. Sericite is produced by the alteration of orthoclase or plagioclase feldsp ...
, thinly bedded
argillite Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of Friability, indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and Pelagic sediment, oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. T ...
s, and
serpentinite Serpentinite is a metamorphic rock composed predominantly of serpentine group minerals formed by serpentinization of mafic or ultramafic rocks. The ancient origin of the name is uncertain; it may be from the similarity of its texture or color ...
. The significant tributaries are the South Germansen River, Horseshoe Creek, Little Slate Creek, Goodasany Creek (formerly Mill Creek), Ah Lock Creek, and Plug Hat Creek. The
watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...
of the river encompasses . For the most part, the valley is about deep and well timbered. The southeasterly section downriver from the lake outlet is a wide valley in the mature stage of the
cycle of erosion The geographic cycle, or cycle of erosion, is an idealized model that explains the development of relief in landscapes. The model starts with the erosion that follows uplift of land above a base level and ends, if conditions allow, in the formati ...
. The channel then turns sharply northeast to enter a rock canyon. Exiting the canyon, the river continues , before turning northwesterly to flow to the mouth. After passing through another mature stage valley, a canyon exists at Mill Creek. Beyond is the wide valley of the Omineca River.


Rock canyon at the forks

Cutting in parallel through separate high walled canyons, the Germansen and South Germansen rivers join after covering and respectively. In the 1870s, a sawmill operated at the lower end of the canyon. In 1934, a dirt road was built northward from Fort St. James, which divided nearby into northwestward to the canyon area and southeastward to
Manson Creek Manson is a surname of Scottish people, Scottish origin.''Manson'' in the Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, p.508 It is an Anglicised version of the Scandinavian name Magnusson (disambiguation), Magnusson, meaning son of ...
. The road was graded in 1939, in preparation for gravelling the next year. A passenger transit service operated on the Fort St. James–Germansen Landing route during the early 1940s, mid-1950s, and around 2000. No public transit provider currently exists in the area.


Germansen Lake

The shore length is , the surface area is about , and the elevation is above sea level. The Germansen Narrows (a.k.a. Gebhardt Arm) is at the western end of the lake. In 1949, the trail along the north side of the lake was upgraded to a road. In 1956, the operator of an IH TD-18 drowned when his caterpillar plunged into the lake. Four camping areas are found along the lakeshore, and Rainbow Cove (on the east side of the narrows) has a combination of open field sites and a few semi-private ones.


Ferries and bridges

A passenger would pull the unattended log raft ferry by rope across the Germansen Narrows. In some form or other, the ferry existed over many decades at the western end of the lake. In 1948–49, a large
scow A scow is a smaller type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailboat, sailing scows. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scows carried cargo in coastal waters and inland waterways, having an advantage for navigating shallow water or small ha ...
was placed on the lake to move mining equipment from the east to west end of the lake. About this time, a rock-filled crib replaced the narrows ferry, which in turn was replaced by a king truss bridge in 1954–55. At one time, a bridge existed over the river at the lake outlet.


Mining

The reported mining earnings for the 1871 season were $400,000, which had fallen to $32,000 for the general area in 1875. By the next year, the mining district was almost deserted.
Placer mining Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit mining or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. Placer mining is frequently used for precious metal deposits (particularly ...
for gold has taken place almost continuously since that time by individuals and intermittently by companies. Some hard-rock mining has also occurred. Germansen Placers, established in 1931 and renamed as Germansen Mines in 1934, undertook
hydraulic mining Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...
about from the river mouth until 1943. Flumes and a ditches supplied water from the South Germansen River. Another account mentions the source as downstream from the lake, then along flumes over the South Germansen, before entering a ditch line excavated in 1901. Downstream and on Plughat Creek, Germansen Ventures, which operated 1937–1942, obtained water from the lake, away. During 1946–1961, various individuals worked these pits. Prior to 1950, the estimated gold production for the entire Germansen River system totalled . In 1966, Grizzly Gold Mines operated a dredge on the river. In 2010, Westwing Enterprises conducted seismic surveys.


Old Germansen

In 1871, a new town being constructed southeast from the river mouth was to be called Omineca. Instead, the place became known as Germansen. The 12–20 wooden cabins rested on the lower steep sides of the valley, which had been denuded by clearing, burning, and/or flushing. By 1927, only one couple inhabited the place. By 1937, a footbridge spanned the river just upstream.


Germansen Landing

Germansen Landing Germansen Landing is an unincorporated settlement on the Omineca River, at the confluence of that river and its tributary the Germansen, in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The settlement was a focus of the Omineca Gold Rush ...
lies at the confluence into the Omineca River.


South Germansen River

From
headwater The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...
s in the Germansen Range, the river flows northeastward to its mouth. The watershed is . Geological mapping was conducted on this river by Taiga Consultants in 1980 and Anaconda Canada Exploration in 1982. Angel Jade Mines surveyed hard-rock prospects in 2017.


Maps

* Omineca Mining Division. 1924. * Germansen River. 1936. * * Manson Creek Area. 1938. *


Footnotes


References

*{{Cite report , url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/bcsessional/1.0307323#p5z-3r0f:%22Germansen%22 , author=BC Gov , title=Minister of Mines annual report, 1936 , year=1937 , website=library.ubc.ca Rivers of the Omineca Mountains Omineca Country Mines in British Columbia