Monthly Archives: March 2014

Morkill River

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British Columbia. River: Fraser River drainage
Flows SW into Fraser River near Loos
53.6 N 120.7 W — Map 93H/10 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1915
Name officially adopted in 1925
Official in BC – Canada
This river appears on:
Phillips’s map NW of Robson 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919 [as Morkill (Little Smoky)]
Boundary Commission Sheet 36 (surveyed in 1923)
Boundary Commission Sheet 37 (surveyed in 1923 & 1924)

The name was adopted in 1925 to recognize surveyor Dalby Brooks Morkill [1880–1955].

Morkill was born in Sherbrooke, Québec, and came to British Columbia in 1898. He received his commission as a British Columbia Land Surveyor in 1910. Morkill was employed in 1912 by the British Columbia government making surveys on the Fraser River between Horsey Creek and Holmes River. In 1913, with Alan S. Thompson, Morkill surveyed between Goat River and Catfish Creek.

Morkill worked on the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveys north of Yellowhead Pass in the early 1920s. Subsequently Morkill surveyed in several other areas of the Province. During his last years he spent summers at his residence at Barkerville and winters in Vancouver.

The Morkill River is known locally as the Smoky River, a name that dates back to at least 1909. (There is also a Smoky River in Alberta, headwaters at Robson Pass.)

References:

  • Cautley, Richard William [1873–1953], and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission appointed to delimit the boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Part II. 1917 to 1921. From Kicking Horse Pass to Yellowhead Pass.. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1924. Whyte Museum
  • Cautley, Richard William [1873–1953], and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Parts IIIA & IIIB, 1918 to 1924. From Yellowhead Pass Northerly. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1925. Whyte Museum
  • Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors. Annual Report (1956)., 1956
  • Robson Valley Courier. Weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Press of Jasper from 1968–88 (1968–1988).
  • Andrews, Gerald Smedley [1903–2005]. Métis outpost. Memoirs of the first schoolmaster at the Métis settlement of Kelly Lake, B.C. 1923-1925. Victoria: G.S. Andrews, 1985. Internet Archive
  • Akrigg, Helen B., and Akrigg, George Philip Vernon [1913–2001]. British Columbia Place Names. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997. Internet Archive
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Morkill River
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Morkill Pass

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Alberta-BC boundary. Pass
Fraser River and Smoky River drainages
Headwaters of Morkill River and Muddywater River
53.6833 N 119.7833 W — Map 83E/12 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1925
Official in BC – Canada
This pass appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 36 (surveyed in 1923)
Boundary Commission Sheet 37 (surveyed in 1923 & 1924)
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1931

Morgan Road

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Feature type: road
Province: British Columbia
Location: Forks off Eddy Road W of Hankins Creek

Joe Morgan, one of McBride’s earliest pioneers, homesteaded the Cedarbrook Ranch in 1914. They say he was a barber.

References:

  • Robson Valley Courier. Weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Press of Jasper from1969–88.

Morey

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British Columbia. Railway point
Canadian National Railway, E of Tête Jaune Cache
52.9889 N 119.2889 W — Map 83D/14 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1989
Official in BC – Canada
39 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 57 in Albreda Subdivision (Jasper to Blue River as of 1977)
This railway point appears on:
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919

Named after one of the workers on the construction of this section of the Canadian Northern Railway in the 1910s.

References:

  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000

Moose River

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British Columbia. River: Fraser River drainage
Flows SE into Fraser River, E of Moose Lake
52.9167 N 118.8 W — Map 83D/15 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1863 (Milton and Cheadle)
Name officially adopted in 1923
Official in BC – Canada
This river appears on:
Trutch’s map of BC 1871
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Coleman’s map of Mount Robson 1910
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Boundary Commission Sheet 31 (surveyed in 1922)
Driving ties on Moose River. This river-valley contains about twenty square miles of unalienated timber.

Driving ties on Moose River. This river-valley contains about twenty square miles of unalienated timber.
Report of the Minister of Lands for British Columbia for the yer ending December 31, 1912

Hudson’s Bay Company governor George Simpson referred to Moose Lake in 1824, and Milton and Cheadle referred to Moose River in their account of July 1863:

Soon after we started, we came to Moose River, which was somewhat difficult to ford, for the water was high and rapid, pouring over the horses’ shoulders in the deepest part. Mr. O’B[ierne] lost nerve and steered badly, his horse lost its footing, and nearly took a voyage into the Fraser; the rider, however, gripped mane and saddle firmly, and both got ashore together, adding another hair’s-breadth escape to Mr. O’B.’s list.

References:

  • Simpson, George [1792–1860]. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Frederick Merk, editor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865, P. 263. Internet Archive
Also see:

Moose Pass

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Alberta-BC boundary. Pass
Fraser River and Mackenzie River drainages
Headwaters of Moose River and Calumet Creek
53.2333 N 119.0167 W — Map 83E/3 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (Walcott)
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in BC – Canada
This pass appears on:
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Phillips’s map NW of Robson 1915
Boundary Commission Sheet 31 (surveyed in 1922)
Boundary Commission Sheet 32 (surveyed in 1922 &1924)
View of Moose Pass and Tah Peak: our camp was in the forest on the right. Photo by R. C. W. Lett, by courtesy of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

View of Moose Pass and Tah Peak: our camp was in the forest on the right. Photo by R. C. W. Lett, by courtesy of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
National Geographic Magazine 1913

“As we crossed the beautiful Moose Pass on the Coleman trail of 1908 (6,700 feet = 2,042 meters), I noted that the pass was on the line of a fault that had displaced and tilted up a great block of limestones and shales,” wrote Charles Doolittle Walcott [1850–1927] during the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition to Mount Robson.

The Coleman trail was established by Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] on his unsuccessful attempts to climb Mount Robson in 1907 and 1908.

“Moose Pass station” appears on the 1912 topographical map of the Mount Robson region by surveyor Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945]

References:

  • Coleman, Arthur Philemon [1852–1939]. The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Internet Archive
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “The Alpine Club of Canada’s expedition to Jasper Park, Yellowhead Pass and Mount Robson region, 1911.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):9-80
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “Topographical Map Showing Mount Robson and Mountains of the Continental Divide North of Yellowhead Pass to accompany the Report of the Alpine Club of Canada’s Expedition 1911. From Photographic Surveys by Arthur O. Wheeler; A.C.C. Director.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):8-81
  • Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927]. “The monarch of the Canadian Rockies.” National Geographic Magazine, (1913):626. Internet Archive
Also see:

Moose Lake

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British Columbia. Lake: Fraser River drainage
Expansion of Fraser River, Mount Robson Park
52.95 N 118.9167 W — Map 83D/15 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1824 (Simpson)
Name officially adopted in 1933
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
28 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
This lake appears on:
John Arrowsmith’s map BC 1859
Milton and Cheadle’s map 1865
Trutch’s map of BC 1871
George Monro Grant’s map of Yellowhead Pass 1872
Tolmie and Dawson map Indian Tribes of BC 1884
BC Lands Central BC 1892
Brownlee’s map Province of BC 1893
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Coleman’s map of Mount Robson 1910
Schäffer map of visits in 1907 and 1908
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Cram’s map British Columbia 1913
Moose Lake. Benjamin F. Baltzly, 1871

Moose Lake. Benjamin F. Baltzly, 1871
McCord Stewart Museum


Moose Lake. Photo: Mary Schäffer, 1908

Moose Lake. Photo: Mary Schäffer, 1908
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Among the 180 or so Moose Lakes in Canada, the Moose Lake in Mount Robson Park was mentioned by Hudson’s Bay Company governor George Simpson [1792–1860] in 1824 when, “to draw the Freemen further into the Mountain than they had been in the habit of going,” he proposed to establish a winter fur trading post at “Moose or Cranberry Lake.” (Cranberry Lake is south of Tête Jaune Cache.) In the fall of that year, chief trader Joseph Felix LaRocque set out to establish the post as a replacement for the post at Smoky River, but was stopped by ice in the Athabasca River and built a post above Jasper House. No fur-trade establishment was ever built at Moose Lake.

“Orignal” is Canadian French for “moose. ” On John Arrowsmith’s 1859 map of British Columbia, Moose Lake appears as “Lac L’Original” [sic].

British tourists Milton and Cheadle passed by the lake in 1863:

Moose Lake is a fine sheet of water, about 15 miles in length, and not more than three miles in breadth at the widest point, The scenery was very wild and grand, and forcibly reminded us of Wast Water. On the south side, the hills rose perpendicularly out of the water for perhaps 2,000 feet, beyond which was the usual background of rocky and hoary peaks. Over the edge of this mighty precipice a row of silver streams poured with unbroken fall, the smaller ones dissipated in mist and spray ere they reached the lake below.

During the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway around 1910, “Mile 28’’ was the camp at the west end of Moose Lake, close to the current Red Pass Junction.

BC Parks has bathymetric maps of Moose Lake showing a maximum depth of about 80 m (275 feet): east and west (PDFs).

References:

  • Simpson, George [1792–1860], and Merk, Frederick [1887–1977], editor. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • McMillan, James [1783–1858]. Winnipeg: Hudson’s Bay Company archives. Portion of letter James McMillan to William Connelly HBCA B.188/b/4 fo. 9-10 (1825).
  • Arrowsmith, John [1790–1873]. Provinces of British Columbia and Vancouver Island; with portions of the United States and Hudson’s Bay Territories. 1859. UVic
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865. Internet Archive
  • Trutch, Joseph William [1826–1904]. Map of British Columbia to the 56th Parallel North Latitude. Victoria, B.C.: Lands and Works Office, 1871. University of Victoria
  • McEvoy, James E., P.L.S. [1862–1935]. “Map Showing Yellowhead Pass Route From Edmonton To Tête-Jaune Cache.” (1900). Natural Resources Canada
  • Schäffer Warren, Mary T. S. [1861–1939]. Old Indian trails. Incidents of camp and trail life, covering two years’ exploration through the Rocky Mountains of Canada. [1907 and 1908]. New York: Putnam, 1911, p. 339. Internet Archive
  • MacGregor, James Grierson [1905–1989]. Pack Saddles to Tête Jaune Cache. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1962 (reprint 1973)
  • Smyth, David. “Some fur trade place names of the Yellowhead Pass: west of the summit to Tête Jaune Cache.” Canoma (journal of the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names), Vol. 11, No. 2 (1985)
Also see:

Moose City

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British Columbia. Former name
Construction camp at junction of Moose and Fraser Rivers
Earliest known reference to this name is 1912 (Wheeler)
Not currently an official name.
Mile 17 from the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Moose City, at Mile 17. Photo: Byron Harmon, 1912

Moose City, at Mile 17. Photo: Byron Harmon, 1912
Canadian Alpine Journal 1912


Oxen pulling cart over bridge at Mile 17 BC, 1912

Oxen pulling cart over bridge at Mile 17 BC, 1912
Exploration Place — Fraser Fort George Regional Museum

In 1912, during his expedition to Mount Robson, Arthur Oliver Wheeler stopped at a railway construction camp on the Moose River. He found “a collection of saloons and bunk-houses of the log-wall-canvas-roof type, for the edification and comfort, or discomfort, of travellers. It glorified in the appellation of ‘Moose City,’ or, in railway parlance, ‘Mile 17.’ There was a good time in town that night. A new brand of ‘soft drink’ had arrived and, about midnight, its arrival was celebrated by a violent beating of triangles and tin cans. There was another shooting that night, but little damage was done. The town was chiefly remarkable for its brand of slick thieves. Konrad Kain [sic] had his clothes stolen, almost off his back, a considerable quantity of grub was taken and the cook’s stove abstracted while he sat upon it. However, in this section one learns to accept trifles of this kind with true philosophy, which in our case meant, buy another stove, at twice the price — on account of the freight.”

During the railway construction, Moose City was for a time the terminus of the tote road and the center of a brief mining flurry. Although a pack trail, sometimes on the hillside, sometimes in the lake, continued along the north side of Moose Lake, the railway contractors Foley, Welch and Stewart decided to move their freight on scows instead of building eight miles of tote road. Showings of gold, silver and copper on the multicolored mountain nearby attracted prospectors, and 17 miles of pack trail was started up Moose River valley.

Moose City was the site of a Japanese internment camp during World War Two. Harold Britton was killed by a train on the Moose River bridge while on guard duty in the early 1940s.

References:

  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “The Alpine Club of Canada’s expedition to Jasper Park, Yellowhead Pass and Mount Robson region, 1911.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):9-80. Alpine Club of Canada
  • MacGregor, James Grierson. Overland by the Yellowhead. Saskatoon: Western Producer, 1974. Internet Archive
  • Wheeler, Marilyn. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979
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