Trout Lake BC Cemetery

The Trout Lake BC Cemetery is well hidden by the forest and all but a few burials date back to the early days. It’s a lost corner in this former mining boom town and the most frequent visitors the local bear population. Peace and tranquility reign supreme, deep in this remote, rugged but hauntingly beautiful valley, so it’s not such a bad place to spend the afterlife.

Nature’s taking over, as you’ll soon see, and among the trees once can find the occasional headstone or other evidence of a burial. A good number of graves are unmarked, however. There’s twenty nine known interments plus a few markers for other folks buried elsewhere but somehow connected to the community and memorialized here.

There’s a guide at the entry, a who’s who of cemetery residents if you will and it also reads: “Step softly, dreams lie buried here.” Those six little words get the mind racing and one can’t help ponder the stories of these folks that together will spend forever at the Trout Lake Cemetery.

Other than little snippets, we’ll never know, but still it gets a person to thinking.

Trout Lake dates back to the 1890s and for a brief moment shone like no other. There’s riches up there in the hills – lead and silver, zinc and copper, plus a smattering of gold – and with this came hoards of prospectors and business people hoping to somehow strike it rich.

For a time it got so big and busy that the community could be called a city. Then in a flash, it ended and by the 1930s, the once happening Trout Lake City flirted with ghost town status. Empty streets and vacant stores spoke of a boom long over (see: Downtown Trout Lake British Columbia).

Still the community held on, and survived somehow, but even today has a small populous of maybe fifty or so. There’s a few leftovers from the old days and the biggest standout is this old hotel: Windsor Hotel Trout Lake. We spent a night once and had the best sleep of our entire lives.

Let’s chat about few of the gravestones…

Alex died at age 32 in 1904 and perished at his place of work, the storied Silver Cup Mine. His role there makes no mention, that we could find. Working deep inside a mountain was exceedingly dangerous and if you’re going to perish there in the earth’s bowels, it’s probably due to something violent or traumatic in nature. Explosions, rockfall and suffocation are just some of the fun ways one can meet their maker underground.

The most elaborate marker here is also the oldest and John, who’s buried here, passed on in early 1900. It’s suspected he’s he first interment here at the cemetery and records seem to corroborate this. Like Alex above, John perished in a mine (the Nettie Lee or Nettie L) and such an all around nice guy and well liked fellow, that seemingly everyone in the area turned up for his funeral.

That pile of bear poop was still steaming, so we just missed each other. These furry beasts are so common to the area that a sighting is hardly big news. The locals ignore the bears and the bears the locals with everyone going about day to day business as though the other didn’t exist.

Walter went to the great beyond in 1912 and at the age of 37. His marker is of wood and if original, it’s amazing that it’s lasted this long. Perhaps it got replaced at some time. The weather here in Trout Lake is wet and the winter’s brutal, so one might expect it to have rotted away by now. Either way, it’s the only one of wood we found in an intact state.

His cause of death is shown as a fractured skull and the location of passing nearby Ferguson. A mine worker, he too died on the job.

Annie passed away in 1909 at the age of 26 and her place of death is listed as Revelstoke. Her husband worked in mining and frequented the Trout Lake area, so presumably brought down to be close to him. I guess?

Roy was born in Trout Lake in 1901 and died in 1994 but is buried elsewhere in the province. That’s a good long life and he must have been one the earliest births in the community. His parents are buried here and his living family wanted a memorial put in so he could be close to them in spirit and his place of birth. When he came into the world long ago, Trout Lake was booming and the future bright. On his posthumous return, it’s had changed to a sleepy little backwater, much as it is today.

There’s a forth person sharing his family name (but only according to one source) but the connection is not clear. Perhaps they’re related (by the numbers, through marriage), and by all accounts this other person might have been the last to actually be burial here (1986).

Interestingly a good number of interments in Trout Lake were of people that died elsewhere, outside the region, and later brought home. This can only suggests they all had deep connections to the area.

Lawrence has been buried here for something close to one hundred and twenty years and died in 1902 at the age of sixty nine. According to records that is. The grave stone, however, seems to read 1909 (and displays a differing month) and his age listed as sixty eight. How curious and in another head-scratching moment, his passing makes no mention in local papers according an area historical society. But if not here, where? The marker does list Trout Lake City as the place of death, incidentally.

There’s a Scooby Doo mystery here.

Some odd bits of rotten wood and a series of posts mark another grave, but there’s nothing to identify who might be laying below. Still, it’s something to connect it back to a person, even if unknown and that’s more than most graves here have. Most interments have no markings at all. It’s not that they didn’t have them, in all likelihood, but rather they were of wood and since rotted away. Only those well off could afford one in stone.

The second burial in Trout Lake was later in 1900 (presently unmarked) and of a little girl named Vera, who lived six whole days. What a tough road they faced and many babies prematurely perished back then. She must have been on of the first born in Trout Lake – it wasn’t exactly a family friendly place in the 1890s and few women around until later – but certainly became the first born in the community to also perish.

On that subject – there’s an unmarked grave here of a baby that only lived hours and shares a birthday with one half of Team BIGDoer. We’ll raise at toast to little Ruth next March 22. Damn, being a parent back then was fraught with heartbreak and the odds so stacked against the little ones.

Records show many of the people that came to live in and around the community and buried here were immigrants. A roll call shows folks from Ireland, Scotland, England, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the US and Greece, but only a few were Canadian born.

By the 1920s burials at Trout Lake Cemetery were infrequent and after World War Two had pretty much stopped all together. There have been a couple later comers, but otherwise it’s been quiet here ever since the mining days. It’s all done now.

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Trout Lake’s finest…
Windsor Hotel Trout Lake

More like this…
Donald Cemetery.
The Little Cemetery Moyie BC.
Badlands Cemetery.

Date of Adventure: May, 2022.
Location(s): Trout Lake, BC.
Article references and thanks: Dale for being a great host, Vernon & District Family History Society, Arrow Lakes Historical Society, FindAGrave.com and Trout Lake Community Club.

The Trout Lake BC Cemetery is hidden in the trees.

Alex passed in 1904 at the age of 32.

Should we even need to be reminded?

One of the most elaborate and the first burial here.

Still steaming…

A peaceful place to spend all eternity.

Walter went to the great beyond in 1912.

Details on Annie’s grave stone.

Born in Trout Lake in 1901 but not buried here.

Lawrence has rested here for something close to 120 years.

Nature’s taking over this now unmarked grave.