{"id":225,"date":"2004-07-22T03:53:00","date_gmt":"2004-07-22T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=225"},"modified":"2018-06-15T12:47:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T18:47:10","slug":"225","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=225","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of Wicca Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, that’s not the title of another of Llewellyn Publications’<\/a> ventures into “occult” fiction. It’s a question that has been bothering me since my return from British Columbia.<\/p>\n

That area of SE British Columbia was settled in the 1890s, first by miners. Ninety years later–1983–the provincial government set 49,893 hectares aside as Valhalla Provincial Park<\/a>, which includes the Devil’s Range, Lucifer Peak, the Devil’s Couch (another mountain), and other unfortunate names. (Why the Christian Devil gets so many interesting geological features named after him is a paper that I have always wanted to write.)<\/p>\n

Other features have names more in keeping with the “Valhalla” theme, which also undoubtedly explains the naming of Thor’s Pizza in nearby Nelson.<\/p>\n

Hiking into the Devil’s Range, M. and I came across Wicca Lake, which our otherwise authoritative hiking guide<\/a> referred to merely as “a tiny lake on Drinnon Pass.” Wicca Lake? Devil’s Range? OK, that’s unfortunate, but the scenery is great: here is one professional photographer’s version<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s funny how the memory of how places got their names often vanishes rapidly, within a generation or two, unless they were named after famous people or obvious physical characteristics. I have asked one Canadian Wiccan with a wide geographical knowledge of B.C.’s mining districts if she knows, but so far, no response. I will post one if I get one; otherwise, if you have a solid answer, post a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, that’s not the title of another of Llewellyn Publications’ ventures into “occult” fiction. It’s a question that has been bothering me since my return from British Columbia. That area of SE British Columbia was settled in the 1890s, first by miners. Ninety years later–1983–the provincial government set 49,893 hectares aside as Valhalla Provincial Park, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[340,94,13,6],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-travel","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-225","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3910,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3910","url_meta":{"origin":225,"position":0},"title":"“Wicca Man” Trailer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the trailer for the new British documentary on Gerald Gardner, theatrically introduced by Ronald Hutton rather like an episode of the archaeology program Secrets of the Dead. Britain's Wicca Man - (C) Matchlight from Matchlight on Vimeo. I am happy to hear Professor Hutton say that Wicca was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=682","url_meta":{"origin":225,"position":1},"title":"In my hot, sweaty handsYesterday\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In my hot, sweaty handsYesterday I had my first email from someone who was reading Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. That was great, but where were my copies? I fired off a plaintive email to my editor.Today I came to the university, and there\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":874,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=874","url_meta":{"origin":225,"position":2},"title":"Quick Notes","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 I went away for a high-school graduation and a small family reunion in one of the non-fashionable parts of Colorado, a trip that prompted these thoughts in my other blog.\u00b6 Ian Jamison, a British Pagan graduate student, seeks people to take The Pagan Environmental Engagement Survey. In some instances,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9750,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9750","url_meta":{"origin":225,"position":3},"title":"Central American Pagans, Wicca and #MeToo, and Good Writing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Costa Rica now has a Pagan presence: Asatru, Witches, and Druids: Think paganism [sic], and you probably don\u2019t think of a conservative, Catholic-majority country in Central America. But Costa Rica, with its beautiful beaches and tropical charm, is emerging as an unlikely base for a growing pagan movement battling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asatru\"","block_context":{"text":"Asatru","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=asatru"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7160,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7160","url_meta":{"origin":225,"position":4},"title":"Strange Doings in Hagley Woods","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This \"cold\" English murder case caught my attention because of the involvement of Professor Margaret \"Grandmother of Wicca\" Murray, who apparently injected herself into it, somewhat after the fact, with tales of witches. (Never mind that \"wych elm\" does not mean \"witch elm.\") Some British writers have attempted to cast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"crime\"","block_context":{"text":"crime","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=crime"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12446,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12446","url_meta":{"origin":225,"position":5},"title":"Z Budapest Is Still Creating","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Z Budapest, one the first public witches of the 1970s in the United States, is \"largely retired from ritual work\" but still creating, according to a profile pubished in the Los Angeles Times. \u201cI don\u2019t agree with all her views, but in the history of the craft, she is an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/z_budapest_-_la_times_2021.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/z_budapest_-_la_times_2021.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/z_budapest_-_la_times_2021.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9616,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/9616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}