Louie Knutson [1891-1982] was one of the first persons of European descent to settle in the Robson valley. Born in Norway, Knutson emigrated to Canada from the United States in 1910. After a short stint logging on Vancouver Island, he bought two pack horses in Edmonton and headed for the North Thompson valley. He spent the summer in the hills and in the fall came out the Raush River valley to McBride.

After surveying the tar sands for the Alberta government, in 1911 he returned to McBride and went to work for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. He was soon back trapping the North Thompson. On a trip out he married Francis Rose Frye [1905–1992], sister of Ella and Mike Frye. Francis was born in North Dakota and had come with her family to the Valemount area in 1911.

Louie and Francis spent their honeymoon on the trapline. Louis discovered a deposit of high-grade ore at the headwaters of the Azure and Hobson rivers in 1916. He built trails and worked this property until he was unable to walk, but failed to get anything out of it. The site was closed to development when it became part of Wells Grey Provincial Park.

Adolph Anderson was a guide and trapper on the North Thompson River. The creek was named in 1932 in association with War Colt Group of mineral claims in this vicinity, owned by Adolph Anderson and Louis Knutson of Albreda.

Pinkney Bee Abernathy [1900–1961] and his wife Elizabeth [b. 1905] arrived at Red Pass from Gainford, Alberta, in 1949. Abernathy, a native of North Carolina, set up a lumber mill at Swift Current Creek, which he operated until 1960.

A supporter of the Yellowhead Route, he worked on the construction of the highway through Mount Robson Park. Before there was year-round maintenance of this section of Highway 16, Abernathy kept the road open to obtain mail and freight from Red Pass and to reach a long-distance phone at Jasper.

Origin of the name unknown.

Near Tête Jaune Cache

One of the eight Rainbow Falls in Canada.

Falls of the Moose River. J. Norman Collie, 1910
The Geographical Journal (London)

Falls In Rainbow Canyon. Byron Harmon, 1911
Canadian Alpine Journal 1912

In the report of the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition, Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] wrote:

Moose River emerges from a canyon directly beside the railway. It is very fine and will be a most attractive feature to the travelling public. The canyon is not more than two hundred yards in length and about 150 feet deep. There are two falls near the head, of which the upper drops 50 feet and the lower 20 feet. Here the grandeur and awe of the spectacle culminates; the gorge is at its wildest, the sheer rock walls at their steepest; you are between the two falls; flying mist and spray fill the available space and eddy and circle continuously. On sunny days baby rainbows play hide and seek. I counted, at one and the same time, half a dozen at various points of view. The name Rainbow Falls and Canyon is suggested as attractive and appropriate; the more so that the mountain group, of which Robson is the dominating mass, is known as the Rainbow Mountains. The canyon is an exceptionally fine study of the action and effect of a powerful glacial torrent.

Wheeler indicated Rainbow Canyon on the map accompanying his report in the 1912 Canadian Alpine Journal.