Whonnock Lake

Whonnock is a rural, naturally treed, and hilly community on the north side of the Fraser River in the eastern part of the City of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately 56 kilometres east of Downtown Vancouver on the Lougheed Highway Whonnock shares borders with three other Maple Ridge communities. To the west the borders are 256th Street with Albion and upper Kanaka Creek with Webster's Corners. To the east Whonnock Creek forms the border with Ruskin. To the north is the municipal border and to the south the Fraser River.The name Whonnock is derived from a Halkomelem word for humpback salmon or pink salmon, the only kind of salmon to ascend Whonnock Creek. Whonnock Creek flows from the north, above Dewdney Trunk Road, south to the Fraser River passing Whonnock Lake or from Xwô:leqw / Wõ:leqw.

Ruskin is a rural, naturally-treed community, about 35 mi (56 km) east of Vancouver on the north shore of the Fraser River. It was named around 1900 after of the English art critic, essayist, and prominent social thinker John Ruskin. Ruskin is one of the historical communities of the municipality of Maple Ridge. In that context Ruskin borders on its west side with the community of Whonnock by the Whonnock Creek and the Whonnock Reserve, and on the east side with the municipality of Mission. The border to the south is the Fraser River and to the north the point where Whonnock Creek crosses the Mission borderline. Ruskin touches the Stave River at the tip of the southwest corner where the Stave River flows into the Fraser River. The area generally understood as Ruskin goes beyond those boundaries. Ruskin in a social sense straddles the municipal border of Maple Ridge and Mission. In that close-knit community there was and is no border separating residents from Maple Ridge from those in Mission. Residents who lived and are still living along the western shore of the lower Stave River, even if they live in the municipality of Mission, consider their neighbourhood as Ruskin.

Ruskin Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Stave River in Ruskin, British Columbia, Canada. The dam was completed in 1930 for the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation. The dam created Hayward Lake, which supplies water to a 105 MW powerhouse and flooded the Stave's former lower canyon, which ended in a small waterfall approximately where the dam is today.

The Stave River is a tributary of the Fraser, joining it at the boundary between the municipalities of Maple Ridge and Mission, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) east of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in the Central Fraser Valley region. Blocked since the 1920s by two dams built by the BC Electric Railway at Stave Falls and one at Ruskin, the only free-flowing parts of the Stave today are the 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) between Ruskin Dam and the Fraser and the 45 kilometres (28 mi) from its source in Garibaldi Provincial Park to the head of Stave Lake. Prior to power development the total length of the river was c. 85 kilometres (53 mi).

Silvermere Lake, locally called Hullah's Lake, is located on the west side of Silverdale, a rural neighborhood of Mission, British Columbia, is a man made lake. It is visible from and adjacent to the Lougheed Highway, which follows a causeway on the lake's south side. The lake covers an inter tidal prairie with natural drainage patterns coming off of the Silverdale and Silverhill areas on the East side of the lake and joining the Stave River above the highway. BC geological survey aerial photography from the early 1950s shows this Photo # BC1782:40) The lake was created by diking both of off the highway and on the North end to Hayward road. The dikes were constructed buy dump and push methods with raw gravel mined from the North end of the island. The only native ground removal from the bottom of the lake was done by dredging was along the South end, in front of the houses, to increase depth and at the North end to create more land base for development. The North dredging created a hole that used to be up to 30 feet deep. All of this was part of a 1950s vintage real estate development by Norman William (Ned) Hullah's. He built his private estate on the naturally occurring hill along the west side of the lake. This hill now locally known as the Island, though previously it was known as Hullah's Island. The ownership of the island is split more or less equally down the middle between I.R. on the West and Private land on the East. The private portion includes the lake bottom to the Fraser 1896 high water mark in front of all of the housing along the shore. The portion South of the highway was recently subdivided out to Ducks Unlimited. The name Stave River was created by Hudson's Bay Company employees. The native name for the river is forgotten, although modern-day natives refer to it as Skayuks ("everyone died"), also the name given to one of three villages that were located in the delta marshlands of the lower reaches of the river at the time of non-native settlement (1870s onwards). The name is a reference to consequences of the successive smallpox plagues and other disease pandemics which destroyed the populations and cultures of the Fraser Valley.

Hayward Lake is a lake and reservoir on the Stave River in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the District of Mission about 60 km east of Vancouver, Hayward Lake is formed by Ruskin Dam, which lies about 3 km upstream from the Stave River's confluence with the Fraser River at Ruskin, which sits astride the Mission-Maple Ridge boundary. The lake begins at the tailrace from the Stave Falls Dam and is about 7.5 km in length and an average of 0.5 km wide, with a maximum width of 1.5 km when lengths of small inlets are taken into account.

Blue Mountain is a mountain in British Columbia.

The neighbourhood of Thornhill on the south slope of Grant Hill in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, forms the western part of the historical community of Whonnock. The lower part along the Fraser River attracted some early settlers, but the higher land only became populated after the First World War, when Japanese farmers were among the first to open its land for agriculture. After the Japanese were evicted in 1942, their lands became available to a growing community of young white families.

Rolley Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Rolley Lake in the Stave Falls area of Mission, British Columbia. The area was inhabited by the Sto:lo people, homesteaded in 1888 by James and Fanny Rolley, and later used for logging operations. The park now provides campsites, use of the lake, and hiking, with an area of 115 hectares (280 acres).Rolley Lake has a day-use area, camping site, and two popular hiking trails. Rolley Lake trail circles the lake and is an easy 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) loop. Rolley Falls hike is a 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) out-and-back trail that starts at the campsite and leads to nearby waterfalls.

Webster's Corners is a community in British Columbia, located northeast of Albion in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Webster's Corners was founded by James Murray Webster who was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. James Webster arrived in 1883 and was the first postmaster. He named the settlement after himself.: 291 

Kanaka Creek Regional Park is a regional park of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, located in the city of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, flanking both sides of Kanaka Creek from its confluence with the Fraser River just east of Haney and extending approximately 11 km (7 mi) up the creek to just south of the community of Webster's Corners. The Maple Ridge Fairgrounds are just east of the lower regions of the park, beyond them is the community of Albion. Derby Reach Regional Park is just across the Fraser in Langley. A variety of plants and animals can be located in all 3 areas of the park and it is a popular spot for both Black Bear and Salmon populations. Kanaka Creek Regional Park has a rich history- the first purchase of land for the park by the City of Maple Ridge occurred in the late 1970s, and the land is the traditional unceded territory of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Matsqui, Musqueam, Semiahmoo, and Tseil-Waututh peoples. Recently, misuse of the land has negatively changed parts of the park. To fix this issue, Metro Vancouver Regional Parks implemented a 20 year management plan in 2004 with the assistance of the Katzie First Nation among other groups, and the University of Victoria (UVIC) completed a restoration project in areas of the park in 2022.

Silverdale is a semi-rural neighbourhood of the District of Mission, British Columbia, Canada, located about 40 km east of Vancouver on the east bank of the Stave River at its confluence with the Fraser. Noted for its historic Italian Canadian community, its economy was farming, fishing and logging based until the general suburbanization of Fraser Valley life in the 1960s and 1970s. Of its Italian community, notable offspring include Phil Gaglardi, former BC Highways minister, and speed-skater Eden Donatelli. Silverdale is also notable as the site of Canada's first train robbery, by the "Gentleman Bandit" Billy Miner, and it is there he is supposed to have first used the polite "Hands Up!" in the course of the robbery.The lakeshore residences on the east side of Silvermere Lake are part of Silverdale. Silvermere was created by the dredging of the marshlands in the area. Silverdale was named after Silverdale, Staffordshire. The name was chosen from a list of British places by J. A. Skinner, an early postmaster.