Mica Creek is a small village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 that was used as a base of operations for the construction of the Mica Dam

Mica Dam

The Mica Dam is a hydroelectric dam spanning the Columbia River 135 kilometres north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. Completed in 1973 under the terms of the 1964 Columbia River Treaty, the Mica powerhouse has a generating capacity of . The dam is operated by BC Hydro...

 hydroelectric project by BC Hydro

BC Hydro

The BC Hydro and Power Authority is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia generally known simply as BC Hydro. It is the main electric distributor, serving 1.8 million customers in most areas, with the exception of the Kootenay region, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis...

 in the 1960s and 1970s. It is located 148 km north of Revelstoke

Revelstoke, British Columbia

Revelstoke is a city in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. It is located east of Vancouver, and west of Calgary, Alberta. The city is situated on the banks of the Columbia River just south of the Revelstoke Dam and near its confluence with the Illecillewaet River...

, British Columbia on Highway 23 and situated at the convergence of the Revelstoke Lake

Revelstoke Lake

Lake Revelstoke or Revelstoke Lake or Revelstoke Lake Reservoir is an artificial lake on the Columbia River, north of the town of Revelstoke, British Columbia and south of Mica Creek...

 (the Columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

) and a stream called Mica Creek. The village is effectively a relocation of Mica, British Columbia, which had been at the confluence of the Columbia and Mica Creek proper. The creek itself was named for the flakes of mica

Mica

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...

 minerals which could be found floating in its waters. The Mica Creek area was one of the foci of the Big Bend Gold Rush

Big Bend Gold Rush

The Big Bend Gold Rush was a gold rush on the upper Columbia River in the Colony of British Columbia in the mid-1860s....

 of the 1860s.

The village of Mica Creek reached its peak population of approximately 4000 people around 1973, at the time of the opening of the Mica Dam. At that time there were quite a number of amenities including a school, church, ski lodge, community center, indoor swimming pool, police station, fire hall, grocery store and post office. As the village reduced in population, these were gradually shut down; the high school closed its doors in 1978.

At the time of the construction of the Revelstoke Dam

Revelstoke Dam

The Revelstoke Dam, also known as Revelstoke Canyon Dam, is a hydroelectric dam spanning the Columbia River, 5 km north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. The powerhouse was completed in 1984 and has a generating capacity of 2480 MW. Four generating units were installed initially, with one...

 downriver in the early 1980s, the townsite of Mica Creek was moved to a higher position 500 metres inland from the Columbia River to accommodate flooding which created the dam's reservoir, Lake Revelstoke.

As of October 2005, Mica Creek is no longer incorporated as a village, but many of the buildings of the old townsite are still maintained by private parties to provide accommodation for tourists and heliskiers

Heliskiing

Heliskiing is off-trail, downhill skiing that is accessed by a helicopter, not a ski lift. Heliskiing is essentially about skiing in a natural—albeit highly selected—environment without the effort or gear compromise required for hiking into these areas as in ski touring or ski mountaineering.Most...

.