Stuart Lake offers a variety of recreational activities, including boating, canoeing, kayaking swimming, and sunbathing at sandy beaches.

Stuart Lake is important to British Columbia history, being the location of one of the oldest non-native settlements in the province, Fort St. James.

Fraser and other members of his expedition soon established a North West Company trading post, leaving behind for the winter a garrison led by clerk John Stuart, in whose honor the English name of the lake was given.

Pope Lake, after the mountain that overlooks it, Nak'al (Athapascan pronunciation: [nakʼal]), known in English as Mt.

In 2012, the "Mayor and Council of the District of Fort St. James unanimously voted to adopt a resolution declaring their opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project."