Camping and Fishing
Camping and Fishing Opportunities in the Nordegg Area
Goldeye Lake
The road into Goldeye Lake is seven kilometers (4 miles) west of Nordegg. From there, the lake is a short distance from the highway.
Fish Lake
Fish Lake turn-off is five kilometers (3 miles) west of Nordegg. The Lake is located a short distance southwest of the highway.
Fish Lake, often shown on maps as (but never called) Shunda Lake, was the summer place of Nordegg pople during the lifetime of the mining community.
Fish Lake drains into Shunda Creek which, in turn, drains into the North Saskatchewan River. However, Fish Lake is not the source of Shunda Creek, but a tributary, along with numerous other bodies of water.
The source of Shunda Creek is in the muskeg area northwest of Nordegg, where the Forestry Trunk Road (Highway 734) now runs.
Shunda (the Stoney word for "mire" or "swampy" has also been known as Mire Creek.
In previous centuries, First Nations people referred to it as "Big Fish Creek" and "Fishing Creek" to establish location. (Native place names are descriptive of the spot , to simplify recognition.
Early First Nations people, who were part of this land even before the ancient pyramids were built in Egypt, created a network of trails, some still visible and in use.
A mojor First Nations overland route through the mountains followed Shunda Creek for its confluence with the Saskatchewan through Shunda Gap.
This trail then branched into different directions. The south branch of the trail crossed the Shunda at a shallow spot just east of an area now known as Beaverdam.
From Beaverdam, this trail angled toward higher ground reaching the southern edge of Shunda Basin, where the rail line later was constructed into Nordegg.
The Shunda increases in size at Beaverdam, due to drainage of smaller creeks converging from nearby mountains, In the late 1920's, a dam was built to float cut timber downstream to a small lumber mill at Harlech. This was not very successful since the Shunda has too many twists and turns for lumber to free-float downstream.
First Nations Overland Trail through Black Canyon
The Native Trail passed just above Brazeau Collieries minesite, then turned south. The South forestry Trunk Road or Highway 734, now follows a portion of the trail until it reaches the Forks. Here, the First Nations Trail had split into two trails. One followed relatively close to the river, continuing westward. It passed through Black Canyon, returning to the river at Tershishner Creek. This ancient trail with a history of approximately 10,000 years is still visible today.
The other branch of this ancient trail returned more directly to the North Saskatchewan, to a grassy meadow on the north side of the river, not far west of the present bridge.
Early in the 1900's this meadow, or "flats: was named Brewster's Flats, for George Brewster, who built a small ranch at this historic spot. It was here that some of the giants of Western Canadian History had camped, while enroute through these mountains.
