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Campion Mountain

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British Columbia. Mountain
S of Mount Robson
53.0528 N 119.1611 W — Map 083E03 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1978
Official in BC – Canada

On the alpine slopes of this mountain grow the pink-flowered (or is it blue?) moss campion, a circumpolar, mat-forming alpine plant of the genus Silene.

“Still higher up were several kinds of flowering mosses: the pink (moss campion), the white, and the yellow,” wrote explorer Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] in 1912.

Possibly named by the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission, of which Wheeler was a member, in 1922.

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
  • 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
Also see:

Campion Creek

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British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows S into Moose River near headwaters
53.1833 N 118.9333 W — Map 83E/2 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada
This creek appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 31 (surveyed in 1922)

The flowering plants bladder campion and alpine campion are indigenous to the Canadian Rockies.

This creek has also been labelled variously “Wall,” “Wallpass,” and “Treadmill” creek.

References:

Also see:

Camp Creek

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British Columbia. Creek: Columbia River drainage
Flows N into Canoe River
52.7653 N 119.2489 W — Map 083D14 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1919 (BC map 3H)
Name officially adopted in 1961
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names

The camp was that of Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor Roderick M. McLennan [1805–1908] whose party wintered here in 1871–72.

Not associated with the famous Boat Encampment of David Thompson [1770–1857] (also known as Canoe Encampment).

References:

  • MacGregor, James Grierson [1905–1989]. Overland by the Yellowhead. Saskatoon: Western Producer, 1974. Internet Archive [accessed 3 March 2025]

Caledonia Mountain

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Alberta-BC boundary. Mountain
E of Moose Lake
52.9514 N 118.6522 W — Map 083D15 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1924
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This mountain appears on:
Palliser map 1863
Boundary Commission Sheet 30 (surveyed in 1924) [as “Mt. Caledonia”]

The valley of the Miette River, over which Caledonia Mountain looms, was sometimes referred to as the Caledonian Valley during the fur trade era. “The afternoon proved that the valley is worthy of its old name Caledonian, if the name was meant to suggest the thistle of the ‘wha’ daur meddle wi’ me!’” wrote George Monro Grant [1835–1902] after his trip with Sandford Fleming [1827–1915] in 1872 [1].

“New Caledonia” was the name for the interior of British Columbia during the fur trade, a name given by Simon Fraser [1776–1862] because the country reminded him of his mother’s descriptions of her native Scotland. Caledonia is a Celtic word meaning “a dweller in woods and forests.”

Also see

References:

  • 1. Grant, George Monro [1835–1902]. Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming’s Expedition through Canada in 1872. Being a Diary Kept During a Journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the Expedition of the Engineer-in-Chief of the Canadian Pacific and Intercolonial Railways. Toronto: James Campbell and Son, 1873. Google Books [accessed 13 November 2025]

Burns Landing

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British Columbia. Unofficial name
Former name of junction of Dominion Creek (McBride) and Fraser River
53.308 N 120.1523 W Google — GeoHack
Not currently an official name.
Patrick Burns. Glenbow Museum, Calgary

Patrick Burns. Glenbow Museum, Calgary Dictionary of Canadian Biography

During the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the meat company owned by Patrick Burns [1856–1937] unloaded cattle near McBride at the junction of Dominion Creek and the Fraser River. The cattle were rafted down from Tête Jaune Cache, near the slaughterhouse at Swift Creek. The Ontario-born cattle king made his fortune supplying meat to the construction camps.

Burns was born near Oshawa, Upper Canada. While living at nearby Kirkfield, he made a friendship with William Mackenzie, a young contractor who would help Burns in establishing a meat business on a large scale. Mackenzie’s firm was general contractors for the construction of the Canadian Northern Railway.

Burns came west in 1878, and established a slaughter-house in Calgary in 1890. He bought the 7,000 deeded acres of the CK Ranch on the north side of the Bow River about 10 km west of Calgary in 1905.

His company became one of the largest meat-packing businesses in the world, with branches in London, Liverpool, and Yokohama. In 1931 he was appointed to the Canadian Senate, but relinquished his seat in 1936. He died at Calgary.

“Burns P & Co Ltd meat market” is listed in the 1918 Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory under McBride. The company also had British Columbia operations in Ashcroft, Corbin, Cranbrook , Fernie, Field, Golden, Grand Forks, Greenwood, Hazelton, Kamloops, Kaslo, Kelowna, Marpole, Nanaimo, Natal, Nelson, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Phelan, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Princeton, Revelstoke, Rossland, Salmon Arm, South Fort George, Steveston, Trail, Vancouver, Vernon, and Victoria.

References:

  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive [accessed 6 February 2025]
  • Elofson, Warren. Burns, Patrick. University of Toronto, 2011 Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 16 [accessed 24 February 2025]. [accessed 24 February 2025]