Author Archives: Swany

Canoe Encampment

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British Columbia. Locality: Columbia River drainage
Confluence of Canoe River and Columbia River (now submerged in Kinbasket Lake)
52.1167 N 118.4333 W — Map 83D01 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1811 (David Thompson)
Not currently an official name.
This locality appears on:
Map North America 1817 [A NWC post indicated here]
John Arrowsmith’s map BC 1859

On John Arrowsmith’s 1859 map of British Columbia, “Canoe Encampment” is the name for the Boat Encampment established by David Thompson [1770–1857] in 1811.

Milton and Cheadle

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Our party across the mountains. Milton and Cheadle

Our party across the mountains. Milton and Cheadle
The North-West Passage by Land. [accessed 2 November 2021]


George A. Walkem [left], Dr. Walter Cheadle [seated], Viscount Milton [right, with hat in left hand], photographed in San Francisco, 1863

George A. Walkem [left], Dr. Walter Cheadle [seated], Viscount Milton [right, with hat in left hand], photographed in San Francisco, 1863
British Columbia Archives

Milton and Cheadle

William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877] was a British nobleman, explorer, and Liberal Party politician. Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910] was an English paediatrician. They travelled across Canada in 1862-1863. Departing from Quebec City in July, they wintered near Fort Carlton in present-day Saskatchewan. In 1863 they became the first “tourists” to travel through the Yellowhead Pass. After a challenging and at times humorous summer, they reached Victoria, British Columbia.

They chronicled their trip in 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 (1865).

Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Milton and Cheadle were authors or co-authors:

  • Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910], and —   Cheadle’s Journal of Trip Across Canada 1862-63. Ottawa: Graphic Publishers, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • — and Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877]; 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 [accessed 3/10/2025]
  • — and Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877]; Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. Voyage de l’Atlantique au Pacifique, à travers le Canada, les montagnes Rocheuses et la Colombie anglaise. Paris: Hachette, 1872
Milton and Cheadle are credited with naming the following places:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Milton and Cheadle was involved:

  • 1863 Milton and Cheadle through YHP
References:

  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The location of Mt. Milton and the restoration of the names ‘Mt. Milton and Mt. Cheadle’.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1943). American Alpine Club

Lac l’Orignal

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British Columbia. : Fraser River drainage
Former name for Moose Lake
Detail of Tête Jaune Cache area, John Arrowsmith map,1859

Detail of Tête Jaune Cache area, John Arrowsmith map,1859
Colonial Dispatches, Uvic

“Orignal” is Canadian French for “moose,” derived from Basque oreina “deer” via orignac, the form that the Basque word took on in the Basque-Mi’kmaq pidgin used by the Mi’kmaq and visiting Basque fishermen and whalers.

On Arrowsmith’s 1859 map, Moose Lake appears as “Lac L’Original [sic],” and the two sections of Yellowhead Lake are called Moose Lake and Cow dung Lake.

References:

  • Arrowsmith, John [1790–1873]. Provinces of British Columbia and Vancouver Island; with portions of the United States and Hudson’s Bay Territories. 1859. UVic
Also see:

Kettle Lakes

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British Columbia. Lakes: Fraser River drainage
W of Yellowhead Lake
52.85 N 118.5833 W — Map 83D/15 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1985
Official in BC – Canada
Kettle Lakes

Kettle Lakes
Natural Resources Canada

A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of ice left behind by retreating glaciers, which become surrounded by sediment deposited by meltwater streams as there is increased friction. The ice becomes buried in the sediment and when the ice melts, a depression is left called a kettle hole, creating a dimpled appearance on the outwash plain. Lakes often fill these kettles; these are called kettle hole lakes. Another source is the sudden drainage of an ice-dammed lake. When the block melts, the hole it leaves behind is a kettle. As the ice melts, ramparts can form around the edge of the kettle hole. The lakes that fill these holes are seldom more than 10 m deep and eventually become filled with sediment.
References:

Jackman Flats Park

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British Columbia. Provincial Park
SE of Tête Jaune Cache
52.9358 N 119.3861 W Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 2002
Official in BC – Canada

Jackman Flats Provincial Park was established in 2000. At the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 years ago, winds from the main trench of the Fraser River and from, what is now, Kinbasket Lake, deposited vast quantities of sand in the Jackman Flats area. This created an ecosystem considered unique in British Columbia. Rare plant communities and shifting sand dune structures now exist in this rather small park (614 ha).

References:

Also see:

Mount Terry Fox Park

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British Columbia. Provincial Park
Adjacent to SW side of Mount Robson Park
52.95 N 119.25 W — Map 83D/14 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1982
Official in BC – Canada

Established on 23 June 1982, containing 1930 hectares more or less.

References:

Also see:

Pinkerton Creek

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British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows S from Pinkerton Lake into Haggen Creek, N of Wells
53.5781 N 121.5833 W — Map 093H12 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1960
Official in BC – Canada

Adopted in 1960 as an established local name, and as labelled on BC Lands’ map 1G, 1959.

Note that another watercourse, flowing northwest into Bowron River, was labelled “Pinkerton (Spruce) Creek” on BC Lands’s map 3A, 1915, 1921 & 1944 editions – presumably the stream had been understood to drain Pinkerton Lake. The stream tributary to Bowron River has since been adopted as Spruce Creek, and the name “Pinkerton Creek” has been applied to the stream that drains Pinkerton Lake into Haggen Creek.

Another Pinkerton Creek less than 60km south of here, tributary to Jack of Clubs Creek near Barkerville. That creek was named after John Pinkerton, one of the Overlanders of 1862, who partnered with Thaddeus Harper in mining claims in the Cariboo — possibly the same namesake.

Abrams Creek

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British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows N into Holmes River
53.3392 N 119.7275 W — Map 83E/5 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 2010
Official in BC – Canada

When a name for this creek was required for a water licence application, the British Columbia Geographical Names Office chose Abrams Creek to recall Ted Abrams, a Tête Jaune trapper from the years before the First World War who participated in the McBride trappers’ exchange for many years.

References:

  • Wheeler, Marilyn [1932–2016]. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Sternwheeler Press, 2008, pp 18, 228, 252, 360
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Abrams Creek