Skookumchuck, British Columbia

This article is for the town and associated rapids on the Kootenay River in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. For the ghost town and First Nations community near Pemberton, British Columbia see Skookumchuck Hot Springs. For the saltwater rapids at the mouth of Sechelt Inlet see Skookumchuck Narrows. For other uses see Skookumchuck or List of Chinook Jargon placenames.

Skookumchuck is a Canadian town in the East Kootenay region of the province of British Columbia, along British Columbia highway 93/95 at the junction of the Kootenay and Lussier Rivers.

Industry

Located nearby is Tembec's Skookumchuck Pulp Mill which produces NBSK. The area features fishing, canoeing, hiking, and hot springs.

Name origin

The name of the town of Skookumchuck dates from the time of fur trade explorer David Thompson and refers to the large rapids in this area on the Kootenay River. Skookumchuck means "strong water", meaning effectively "big rapids" or "heavy current" in the Chinook jargon, and in ordinary use it is a generic name for any rapids, especially the great saltwater rapids at the mouths of the coastal inlets. Some locals believe the name refers to the series of strong-smelling hot springs that occur along a fault plane on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Trench in southeastern British Columbia. These naturally-occurring springs bring hot sulphurous-smelling water to the surface in several locations from the small springs on Ram Creek (not far from Top of the World Provincial Park) northward to the more well-known Radium Hot Springs at the east gate of Kootenay National Park.

In common use, referring to Skookumchuck as a placename, may refer to two other specific locations in British Columbia:

• The unrelated marine tidal rapids at Skookumchuck Narrows — the Skookumchuck, as it is the largest and most powerful of the British Columbia Coast's saltwater rapids — are several hundred kilometres west on the province's Sunshine Coast, where the narrow mouth of Sechelt Inlet spills out that fjord's contents into Jervis Inlet.
• The native community and historic Catholic mission ghost town of Skookumchuck Hot Springs, also known as Skatin in the St'at'imcets (Lillooet) language, lies on the Lillooet River south of Pemberton, about 20 miles nearly due east of the resort of Whistler on the inland side of the Garibaldi Ranges.