Redfish Creek Sluice Gates - Balfour, BC
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 49° 36.854 W 117° 02.880
11U E 496532 N 5495742
Stopped in at Redfish Creek yesterday and got a pleasant surprise.
Waymark Code: WMYPJR
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 07/07/2018
Views: 0
While walking along the creek toward a footbridge further downstream we spied this set of three sluice gates across the creek and decided they looked pretty photogenic.
Redfish Creek rises in the mountains to the north, emptying into the West Arm of Kootenay Lake about 5 kilometres west of Balfour and the lake proper. It appears that a dam had been built at this location at sometime in the distant past, but is now gone, with only its footings remaining. The sluice gates, just upstream of the dam, open the stream to a channel, the purpose of which is unknown. There's no agriculture here, so this wouldn't have been an irrigation channel, unless it was the collective effort of several citizens who wanted to water their gardens. To our knowledge, there was never any placer mining in the immediate area, either. Until we are able to investigate further, the purpose of these gates will remain a mystery.
One thing we do know is that in 1982 a spawning channel was built in Redfish Creek to increase spawning habitat for Kokanee salmon. Kokanee which spawn here live their lives in the West Arm of Kootenay Lake, as opposed to living in the lake itself. We don't know if these sluice gates might have anything to do with that spawning channel.