 Hobson Lake is named for John B. Hobson, a man who did more than any other in British Columbia to demonstrate the value of hydraulic placer mining.With this technique, a bank of gold-bearing gravel was washed into sluices by a powerful jet of water where the gold separated from the gravel.Hobson was born in Ireland in 1844, moved to New York, and studied mining engineering and metallurgy in California.