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Mara Lake is a lake in the Shuswap Country region of south central British Columbia, Canada. To the west is Hyde Mountain and east is Morton Peak. The outlet of the Shuswap River forms the upper reaches. The lower end enters the narrows at Sicamous and flows into Shuswap Lake. The northern end of Mara Lake is by road about west of Revelstoke, east of Kamloops, and north of Vernon.
The lake was originally considered an arm of Shuswap Lake, which in due course adopted the Mara Arm identity. The Mara Lake name first appeared in provincial documentation in the mid-1880s, when the lake designation began to supersede the arm one. This corresponded with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) transcontinental construction.
In May 1891, the southward advance of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway (S&O) rail head from Sicamous along the western side of the lake passed through Enderby. The location of the neighboring station, which CP named as Mara, positioned the subsequent community.
From the early 1820s, the people brought furs to trade at the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fort at Kamloops. By the 1840s, an HBC outpost opened on the western slopes of Mara Lake.
A Splats'in First Nation reserve is on the west shore at the northern end of the lake.
The lake is long. The surface area is about and elevation is above sea level. The mean and maximum depth is .
In 1907, the last of the making regular trips from Savona was destroyed by fire.
In 1998, when a tanker truck rolled down an embankment into the lake, of heavy asphalt oil sank to the bottom forming large sticky clumps.
In 2012, a flash flood swept at least four vehicles into the lake and damaged some houseboats. Days later, a gas tanker truck plunged into the lake.
The more significant early settlers were John (1885) and Marie (1889) Moser, Thomas Gray (1887), Rev Joseph Edward Rosoman (1893), Dave Shannon (1895), and Fred Dean (1901).
S. Appleby was the inaugural postmaster 1893–1895. Members of the Rosoman family held this position 1896–1949.
In August 1895, the school opened. To provide permanent accommodation, a one-room log schoolhouse was erected in 1898. By this time on the west shore, a general store and community hall existed.
In 1900, a one-room frame building replaced the schoolhouse.
In 1904, Robert Mowat made Mara the base for his portable sawmill, admitted J.L.Ruttan as a partner, and upgraded to a daily capacity mill, called the Rothesay Lumber Co. The mill was located near the east end of the bridge.
By 1905, a hotel existed but may have been little more than the mill boarding house.
In 1907, the cemetery was established.
In 1909, a new store and residence/boarding house were erected. Weeks later, the station and bridge were saved in the May fire, but the sawmill, numerous residences, and other structures were lost. The Rothesay liquidator tendered for sale salvageable items from the uninsured mill.
Opening in 1911 were a new hotel and new hall. The next year, the Anglican church building opened. In 1917, the two-room frame schoolhouse was erected. About this time, Thomas Gray operated a small store on his east shore farm.
In 1968, the west side store relocated to the present highway location, being called the Mara Foodliner.
In 1970, the community hall was extended.
In 1975, the post office and school closed.
Weather-related evacuation alerts are common for the community.
Arriving in the early 1900s, Mr. Worthington was the first settler. He homesteaded on adjacent to the north of the later Hummingbird Resort. On the third resale, the Young family bought the Worthington property in 1934 and established the first resort. They erected four small log cabins, which they called the Black Point Resort. In 1936, Swansea Resort Ltd, owned by the Swanson family, bought the property. The next summer, Swansea Resort opened.
When the relief camp disbanded, the Stephens family bought the Hummingbird site and started a tourist camp. In the late 1930s, the Swansons bought the adjacent to the east of their resort to provide highway access. The family opened a general store, gas station, and tea room on Swanson Rd, which was formerly the highway. Both the Hummingbird and Swansea resorts were popular prior to World War II and were revived after the war. In the 1950s, the gas station site became the Mara Lake Resort. Over time, the remainder of the property was subdivided.
Around 1980 Swansea Point began to replace the former name of Six Mile.
In 1997 and 2012 heavy rains caused large debris flows at Hummingbird Creek, which significantly impacted lives, houses, septic systems, and highway infrastructure. Remedial action, which began in 2013, has minimized this risk. Since the early 2000s a new resort has been constructed along Hummingbird Creek, comprising recreational cabins and townhouses.
As of 2021 Swansea Point had about 400 dwellings, only 30 per cent of which were permanently occupied.
In the immediate vicinity were the Cedar View Cabins dating at least from the late 1940s. By the early 1960s, the lakeshore property included a large motel unit, eight cottages, a campground, and store. By the early 1980s, the site was called the Kingbaker Creek Resort. By the mid-aughts, 25 campsites and five cabins existed.
In 2015 a mudslide damaged and moved a house off its foundation, pushed several vehicles from the property onto the highway, and closed the highway for several hours.
In 2022 Pinnacle Lifestyles acquired the resort and renamed it the Mara Lake RV & Beach Club.
The Cherokee Resort existed by the early 1970s. In 1991, this venue was renamed the Club Mara Resort.
Mara Provincial Park is in the vicinity.
In Mara proper are the community church (built 1912) and the community hall (built 1911). To the southeast, along the highway is the cemetery beside the Foodliner store/gas bar.
In June 2022 PintoWest reversed its decision to be included in a planned boundary expansion by the District of Sicamous. Also that month, GolfNorth Properties entered into a long-term lease of the resort. That August, during the first phase of the property development, all 100 available lots sold for a total of $13 million. The potential development is up to 1,000 units.
The Shandy Cove Resort opened in 1968.
The area includes Shandy Cove, about 35 properties along Mara West Road, and the Mara Point site of the Shuswap Lake Marine Provincial Park.
Prior to World War I, a trail existed southward to Two Mile, which was followed by a gap to the present Mara Provincial Park.
After the war a gap to Sicamous remained for several years.
At the end of 1921 the wagon road along the east shore was completed.
In 1972 flash floods submerged or washed away sections of the highway.
In 1907 a rotary snowplow derailed, delaying a passenger train.
In 1913 additional sidings and a new station building on the east side of the tracks were installed at Mara.
In 1921 the southbound mail car caught fire when mailbags were stacked too close to the stove. On discovery of the fire, some mail was rescued at Mara, but the car was destroyed.
In the early 1930s B.J. Carney loaded poles at the Mara siding.
In 1932 a northbound passenger train fatally struck a man on the track north of Mara.
In 1940 a southbound train fatally struck a man in the vicinity of Black Point.
The Mara train station comprised two rooms. The building was later vandalized and burned down. But another CP building has been moved back from the right-of-way to become the Mara Station Bed & Breakfast. To the southwest of the MaraHills Golf Resort was the Fossett passing track, named after CP roadmaster Charles Fossett.
In 1964 the passing track car capacity was 15 at Fossett and 60 at Mara.
A 18-span bridge opened in January 1899. The replacement, which opened in 1913, comprised two , a pony Howe truss swing span, and of approaches.
In 1928 a Howe truss and 27-bay trestle bridge opened.
In 1982 the Mara bridge was replaced.
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