Descharme Lake began as Swan Lake, a winter hunting camp for the Dene people of La Loche. In 1895 Father Penard of the La Loche Mission wrote of reaching it after about 75 miles of travel from La Loche, and the community was counted as one of the mission villages of La Loche. It had a small permanent population of 25 and about 50 people in winter. The 1906 Census recorded 18 people in three families.
The name changed in 1944. Swan Lake was still the name in a 1943 newspaper article, and it became Descharme Lake the following year. "Des charmes" is French for a beautiful or charming place.
Across the lake, where the Descharme River flows into the Clearwater River, is the old town site of Descharme, which had a filleting plant and a store in the 1950s. In 1974 the community had 48 people, with no facilities and no road. An unpaved road now links it to Secondary Highway 955, and most residents were encouraged to relocate to La Loche, with 42 people remaining in 2013. Descharme may be the last of the old winter camps used by the Dene residents of La Loche.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Descharme Lake, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.