Local name for Morkill River
53.6 N 120.7 W Google — GeoHack
Not currently an official name.
Jörgensen Map Province of BC 1895
Frederick Talbot’s map GTP 1910
Cram’s map British Columbia 1913
Jobe’s map Jarvis Pass to Yellowhead 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919
In 1910 Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot [1880–1924] accompanied a party following the route of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway through the Yellowhead Pass to the coast.
Talbot chronicles the trip in The New Garden of Canada. By Pack-horse and Canoe through Undeveloped New British Columbia. The heading of chapter 12 is “Down the Upper Fraser in a Dug-out.” The subhead details the trip from Tête Jaune Cache : “Indian Dug-outs… Our Indian Crew… Pitching Camp at Little Smoky River… The Rau Shuswap River…Mosquitoes… Shooting the Goat Rapids” [1].
This locates the Little Smoky upstream of the Raush River, so in his chronicle he is not referring to the Morkill River but possibly the Holmes River, Horsey Creek, or Small Creek.
However, on the accompanying map, the Little Smoky River is located downstream of the Goat River, which is correct for the Morkill.
- 1. Talbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose [1880–1924]. The new garden of Canada. By pack-horse and canoe through undeveloped new British Columbia. London: Cassell, 1911, p. 128. Internet Archive [accessed 15 February 2025]