Origin of the name unknown.

Mr. La Salle, with a bunch of furs consisting of 47 martens and 48 weasels; a five weeks’ catch that sold for $440.00.
Hunter—Trader—Trapper, v. 24 (1912): 23

Roy Howard of Dunster has identified the namesake of La Salle Lakes, who is not the American businessman J. LaSalle (or Laselle) who purchased the South Fort George townsite in 1909. Around 1912 there was trapper in the Goat River region named Joe La Salle. “He had cabins, one of which is still standing, but barely, at Km 6 of the Goat R. Forest Service Road,” Roy wrote in 2017 (see comment below).

La Salle wrote an article in the Hunter-Trader-Trapper magazine in 1912 about his experiences in the Goat River area that contains the following statements:

From my camp on the Goat to Barkerville, a distance of eighty-five miles, by way of the Goat River Pass, the snow is all the way from three to ten feet deep.

By the way I forgot to mention that there is a steamer running on the Fraser from Fort George to Tete Juane Cache, and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is expected to be in Tete Juane Cache by this summer. It is reported to be within fifty miles of the Cache now.

I am the only trapper that I know of on this side of the Pass. My nearest neighbors being two English boys on Isaac Lake, twenty-two miles from here. [Goat River Pass is currently unnamed.]

There is a good trail from Barkerville to within six miles below my home camp to Milk River, a tributary to the Goat.

While in Barkerville I picked up with a fellow that was willing to come with me and hunt, also be my partner for this season. Well! he was until some time in July. We were working for the Government on the Goat River Trail, clearing and widening it.

The only drawback to this country is the lack of transportation. At the present time the only way to get here would be by way of Ashcroft on the C. P. R. over the old Caribou Road, but when the G. T. P. gets through the Fraser River Valley it will be very easy then. When this road gets through it will open up one of the best countries for game, mineral and scenery that. I know of, and will also cheapen the cost of living. Flour costs me $18.00 per hundred landed here on the Goat River.

Ellice Blackman of Tête Jaune Cache has photographs of caribou trophies “procured by Joe LaSalle party, 1915, McBride.”

Associated with the LaSalle (or La Salle or Laselle) of La Salle Lakes.

F. J. Koeneman, 1910s
Exploration Place

Elizabeth Koeneman

Fred (1899-1979) Koeneman and his wife Elizabeth (b. 1905) were early settlers in the McBride area. Fred was born in Wisconsin. In 1910 his family moved to Olds, Alberta. He lived in various places in Alberta before coming to the McBride area in 1923. He homesteaded on the north side of the Fraser opposite Mile 9 on the railroad, west of McBride.

Elizabeth Clear was born near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, and came to McBride with her mother and sisters in the fall of 1930. In 1931 Fred and Elizabeth met on a fishing trip, when Elizabeth’s fish hook snagged in Fred’s sweater. They were married in 1932. The Koenemans left the homestead to move to the present site of Koeneman Park in 1939, when their two sons were old enough for school. Fred built the log house which looks out over the Fraser River, “the fitting and hewing done by a master workman of the old times.”

Fred worked as a lumberjack, trapped on the McIntosh, Clyde and McKale rivers, tried his hand at mining on the Goat River, farmed, worked as a graderman for Public Works, and was fire lookout on Teare Mountain from 1942 to 1951. Fred retired in 1966, and in 1976 the Koenemans moved into the Beaverview Lodge.

In 1981 their property was sold to the Regional District of Fraser-Ft George for a community park, and the log home was renovated by the Robson Valley Community Arts Council. “Liz” was active for many years on the McBride Hospital Auxiliary and Library Boards. She was “Pioneer of the Year” in 1981.

Named after a Knowlton, “Engineer, Mount Robson Park.”

Adopted as an established local name according to BC Parks:

“…a classic horn-shaped summit, which is notable for the frequency of its rockslides; the rockslides are audible to campers and are a source of much curiosity and interest.” (memo from BC Parks, file C.1.62).

Debris flows occurring on Klapperhorn Mountain pose a significant hazard to railway operations at the base of the mountain.

The mountain was once known as Hogan Mountain. “Dinny” Hogan was a railway contractor who in the 1910s operated a large camp nearby.

Before 1915, the creek was called the Little Shuswap River (Raush River was the Big Shuswap). “Kiwa Creek is known locally as Little Shuswap,” Munday wrote in 1925.