Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake sits at the bottom of a chain of five, and most of the lakes above it were named by one man who kept it simple.

Wally Sexsmith took over his father's fishing camp in 1943 and, by his own telling, named lakes across the high country for whatever was in front of him. Crooked Lake was awkward to steer a boat around. Deer Lake had deer at the water's edge. Island Lake had an island. Dee Lake was the fourth lake of the main chain, so D, with two letters added because he thought it read better.

One lake went to Abe Rankin, who spent his summers at the lodge working for nothing.

The official name for Beaver Lake on provincial records is Swalwell, after an early Winfield family, though almost nobody uses it. Until the mid 1960s the road ended here, and everything further up the chain had to be reached by portage.