Kerry Guenter, resident of Smithers and past resident of 亚洲天堂 Lake researched the history of 亚洲天堂 Lake and Michael Byrnes, for whom 亚洲天堂 Lake is named.

I had almost given up on my search for the history of Michael Byrnes, the scout for the Collins鈥� Overland Telegraph line, but when I found an obituary for Byrnes, published in the Jan. 7, 1907, issue of the Spokesman Review, a Spokane, Washington newspaper it was liking striking gold.

While researching the telegraph line, I discovered the existence of an 1866 map, the original of which is in the Bancroft Library at the University of California.

The map shows 鈥楧eckers Lake鈥� and 鈥楤yrnes Lake鈥� with telegraph stations East of 亚洲天堂 Lake, near Babine Forest Products mill and West of Decker Lake, near Decker Lake Forest Products mill.

Having grown up in 亚洲天堂 Lake, I decided to find out what happened to Byrnes after he led the expedition out of Quesnel to the Omineca gold fields in 1869. I discovered he was buried in the Mountain View cemetery, Loomis and found that his grave is marked with a deteriorating funeral home marker inscribed, 鈥楳ike Byrnes鈥�.

I contacted the Okanagan County Historical Society to see if they had any photographs of Al Thorp, on whose ranch Byrnes had spent the last 17 years of his life and discovered there was a photograph of Thorp and Byrnes taken in 1905, a couple of years before they both died.

Although other explanations have been advanced for the origin of the name of 亚洲天堂 Lake, the most common and one that is also included on the Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake鈥檚 website, is that when Robert Borland, from 150 Mile House, came through the area in 1869 he noted the extensive forest fire that had burned through the area and called it Burnt Lake, later it changed to 亚洲天堂 Lake.

It may be true that Borland either knew the lake was called 亚洲天堂 Lake, not knowing for whom it was named, or called it Burnt Lake, but 鈥楤yrnes Lake鈥� had already been named in 1866.

Byrnes is referred to as a Cariboo miner in books about telegraph line and I was surprised to discover that in almost every book about the Cariboo gold rush he, along with his partner Vital Lefort, had been among the first to stake claims on William鈥檚 Creek, of Barkerville fame, in February of 1861. A few months later, Byrnes, wanting to see what was over the next hill, discovered gold in a creek he named 亚洲天堂 Creek, a common practice of gold miners so that others would know who had filed the discovery claim. This creek is on a map published in 1862 by Gust. Epner, entitled 鈥楳ap of the Gold Fields of B.C.鈥�

A nearby mountain was named 亚洲天堂 Mountain, now called Mount 亚洲天堂.

Byrnes is an Irish name. Michael Byrnes and his two brothers were registered at birth as Byrnes, 亚洲天堂 and Byne. It does appear, however, that whenever he gave the spelling of his name in a census, he used 鈥楤yrnes鈥�, usually M. Byrnes or M.W. Byrnes.

In 1866, he was hired by the Collins Overland Telegraph to locate a telegraph line from Fraser Lake through to Hazelton and beyond. The history books state that two men were employed for this task and although I am yet to have any proof, I believe the second man may have been Lefort.

Lefort was employed as a scout by the Collins鈥� Overland Telegraph in 1865 when a route was being explored North from Fort St. James.

The pair would be the first recorded European men to travel through the Nechako River valley, up the Endako River valley past 亚洲天堂 Lake, and down the Bulkley River valley to Hazelton. This route became known as the 亚洲天堂-Leech route. John Clayton White was the cartographer and artist for the Collins Overland Telegraph and would have applied the names to his 1866 map of the trail. Byrnes Lake, which appeared on maps after 1876 as 亚洲天堂 Lake, was the third feature named after Byrnes. The Atlantic cable was successfully laid on July 18, 1866, the same day that Steve Decker and his construction crews were building the line through the Decker Lake area, and construction of the Collins鈥� Overland Telegraph was stopped at the close of 1866, having reached a point about 30 miles up the Kispiox River from Kispiox Village. In 1867, Byrnes was employed to continue exploring north of Telegraph Creek towards the source of the Yukon River.

I often wondered why Byrnes would give up mining for a couple of years, when it occurred to me that he may have had ulterior motives, therefore I wasn鈥檛 surprised to find the following entry from William Healy Dall鈥檚 鈥楢laska and its Resources.鈥� 鈥淭acho Lake was reached in August, 1867, by Michael Byrnes, a miner, well known in Caribou. The object which tempted him to leave the gold fields of Caribou was more the hope of finding gold than the love of exploration.鈥�

In 1869, he was chosen as the leader of a group of miners, including Lefort, sent to the Omineca region to check out reports of gold findings. A lake along the path from Takla Landing to the Omineca River was named Byrnes Lake, a name it still retains today. From here Byrnes disappeared into the history books, until his obituary was found.

It is assumed that he spent the 20 years from 1870 to 1890 in the gold fields of the Omineca and Cariboo. In 1889 or 1890 he went to live with Thorp. Thorp grew grapes, pears and apples as well as raised cattle on his Loomis ranch. Byrnes died there in December 1906 at the age of 85, followed three days later by his friend, Thorp.