Author Archives: Swany

Wallop Creek

British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows SE into Forgetmenot Creek
53.7178 N 120.42 W — Map 093H09 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BCCanada

Adopted in 1965 as identified in the 1953 BC Gazetteer; a well-established local name. Significance not known.

References:

Also see:

Walker Creek

British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows SW into Torpy River, N of Holy Cross Mountain
53.8 N 120.9 W — Map 93H/15 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1930
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BCCanada
James Alexander Walker

James Alexander Walker
Corporation of BCLS, 1956

British Columbia Land Surveyor James Alexander Walker [1887–1959] started surveys in the upper Fraser River area in 1912. In 1913 and 1914, he surveyed within the three-mile land reserve on the Fraser near McBride, subdividing the country into 40-acre tracts. That year 80,000 acres of land was opened by the provincial government. Walker reported that “a great rush resulted, about 175 pre-emptions having been filed upon. All summer clearing land and building cabins have been the chief industries in the valley. A splendid type of settlers, by far the majority of whom are English-speaking, has come in. There are no Indians in the valley from Tête Jaune Cache to the Fort George Indian reserves.”

Walker Creek (not “East Fork of Torpy River”) identified in the 1930 and 1953 BC Gazetteers.

References:

  • Walker, James Alexander [1887–1959]. “South fork of Fraser River, Dore River to Clearwater River. December 15, 1913.” Report of the Minister of Lands, (1914). Google Books
  • Walker, James Alexander [1887–1959]. “South fork of Fraser River, vicinity of McBride. November 11, 1914.” Report of the Minister of Lands for the Province of British Columbia for the Year Ending 31st December 1914, (1915). Google Books
  • Andrews, Gerald Smedley [1903–2005]. Professional Land Surveyors of British Columbia. Cumulative nominal roll. Victoria: Corporation of Land Surveyors of British Columbia, 1978
  • City of Vancouver Archives. Walker, J. Alexander (2000). City of Vancouver Archives
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Walker Creek

Waddington Peak

British Columbia. Peak
S of Yellowhead Lake
52.7936 N 118.5206 W — Map 083D15 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BCCanada
Alfred Waddington

Alfred Waddington
Wikipedia

“Mount Waddington” adopted in the 16th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 1919, as labelled on Boundary Commission Sheet 29, 1917. Form of name changed to “Waddington Peak” in 1951 to avoid confusion with Mount Waddington in the Coast Range (and named for the same person).

Alfred Penderell Waddington ( 1801-1872), British Columbia pioneer, in Yellowhead Pass. Waddington was born in London, educated in Paris and Germany, worked in France and Brazil, and was a partner in a grocery firm in California by 1858, when he went to Victoria to establish a branch of his firm. He sat in the British Columbia House of Assembly in 1861-2 and helped to draft the city charter in 1862. His book The Fraser mines vindicated; or, the history of four months (Victoria, 1858) may have been the first book printed in British Columbia. Waddington wrote it in the hope of checking the exodus of miners who had not succeeded in the first rush to the gold fields.

In 1864, Waddington attempted to build a road from Bute Inlet to the interior, an enterprise in which a party of his workmen were killed by the Chilcotin people, and through which he was ruined financially. He spent the rest of his life advocating a transcontinental railway and attempting to get a charter to build it. Sandford Fleming [1827–1915], chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, praised his planned route.

References:

  • Story, Norah. The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967

Von Zuben (railway point)

British Columbia. Railway Point
Between Charles and Valemount on Canadian National Railway
52.85 N 119.2792 W — Map 83D/14 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1989
Official in BCCanada
55 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 73 in Albreda Subdivision (Jasper to Blue River as of 1977)

Named for Raphael Leonard von Zuben, a Canadian National Railways purchasing agent, who assisted the railroad with exploring the Canadian Rockies.

References:

  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Mike von Zuben (son). Personal correspondence. 2001
Also see:

Vista Peak

Alberta-BC boundary. Peak
Near headwaters of Rockingham Creek
52.7656 N 118.4042 W — Map 083D16 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BCCanada

A vista is a view, especially one seen through a long and narrow opening. The feature was a camera station on the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission survey, which worked through Yellowhead Pass in 1917.

References:

  • 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:

Viking Road

British Columbia. Road
Forks S off Highway 16, W of Doré River Road
53.3308 N 120.2467 W GoogleGeoHack
Roads are not in the official geographical names databases

Bjørger Pettersen [1942– 2018] operated the Ranch of the Vikings near McBride from about 1970 until 1985. Starting in 1972, it was the training site for the Canadian national cross-country ski team.

Anita Petterson, who was born in Inuvik, won a gold medal at Canada Winter Games in 1975.

References:

  • Robson Valley Courier. McBride weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Press of Jasper from 1968 to 1988 (1968–1988).

Valley of Thousand Falls

British Columbia. Valley: Fraser River drainage
Robson River, between Berg Lake and Kinney Lake
53.1167 N 119.2 W — Map 83E/3 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1910 (Kinney)
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BCTopo map from Canadian Geographical Names
The north face of Mount Robson rises abruptly in a series of precipitos cliffs, rank on rank, to the very skies. At its base the Grand Forks River, swiftly flowing from Berg Lake, leaps a cliff as high as a Niagara and, plunging in a sccession of superb falls through a gorge over 3,000 feet deep, sweeps through the “Valley of a Thousand Falls” on its way to the Fraser. Photo by Rev. George Kinney, ca. 1907. National Geographic 1911

The north face of Mount Robson rises abruptly in a series of precipitos cliffs, rank on rank, to the very skies. At its base the Grand Forks River, swiftly flowing from Berg Lake, leaps a cliff as high as a Niagara and, plunging in a sccession of superb falls through a gorge over 3,000 feet deep, sweeps through the “Valley of a Thousand Falls” on its way to the Fraser. Photo by Rev. George Kinney, ca. 1907. National Geographic 1911

Dr. A. P. Coleman, Geologist of the University of Toronto, organized an expedition in 1907 to capture Mt. Robson. The party consisted of the Doctor and his brother, L.Q. Coleman, myself, and a helper. The four of us, with our pack-train of ten horses and outfit, left Laggan, August 2nd, 1907. We followed the Pipestone, Siffleur, Saskatchewan and Athabasca Rivers; crossing the Pipestone and Wilcox Passes. For weeks we made our own trails through the wilds, and forced our way through hundreds of miles of tangled underwood. We rested our weary limbs by many a beautiful lake and babbling brooklet, while our camp-fires lit the dark shadows of ravine and cliff. Rafting our stuff over the mighty Athabasca, across which we had to swim our horses, we hurried over the Yellowhead Pass, and swung down the Fraser. But our trip that year left Mt. Robson still unconquered, though we explored its western side, and I discovered Mt. Turner [Whitehorn Mountain] and “The Valley of a Thousand Falls.”

George R. B. Kinney [1872–1961]

 

A little more than a mile below Berg Lake the northwest spur of Mt. Robson closely approaches the peaks across the Grand Fork Valley. Below this point is wider circle which heads in a fine glacier and icefall, previously referred to as lying beneath the east face of Mt. Whitehorn. The icefall is of a peculiar pointed shape and drops perpendicularly into a deep rock gorge opening to the lower shingle-flat, already mentioned as that through which the torrent from the glacier flows to join the Grand Fork. This circle has been named by Kinney “The Valley of a Thousand Falls.” It cannot be called a beautiful valley–tremendous cliffs and rock gorges are on every side and the feeling is one of austerity and gloom but it is very impressive and very wonderful. On a bright a sunny day the hanging and cliff glaciers on the surrounding heights of Robson and Whitehorn send down streams of water, which pour over cliffs in long, thread-like falls, some of them hundreds of feet in height. These, together with the falls already described and several others that come from the snowy peaks south of Mt. Whitehorn, give the appearance of numbers, and justify the name in some extent. Beyond the rock gorge of the glacier the eastern walls of Whitehorn rise tier on tier in awe inspiring precipices, and from between two titanic buttresses a tumbling glacier, showing a fine bunch of séracs, continually avalanches fragments to the valley below.

Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945]

References:

  • Kinney, George Rex Boyer [1872–1961], and Phillips, Donald “Curly” [1884–1938]. “To the top of Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1910):21-44. Alpine Club of Canada [accessed 2 April 2025]
  • Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927], and Walcott Jr., Charles Doolittle [1889–1913]. “A Geologist’s Paradise.” National Geographic Magazine, 22, no. 6 (1911). Internet Archive
  • 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. Alpine Club of Canada [accessed 2 April 2025]

Valemount

British Columbia. Village
On Canadian National Railway, S of Swift Creek (railway point)
52.8294 N 119.28 W — Map 083D14 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1963
Official in BCCanada
56 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 74 in Albreda Subdivision (Jasper to Blue River as of 1977)
Canadian Northern Railway station built in 1915
This village appears on:
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1931
Valemount Type “C” CNR station.

Valemount Type “C” CNR station.
Bohi, Canadian National’s Western Depots, p. 42

A valley in the mountains — that is how Canadian National Railroad officials saw the village when the former Canadian Northern Railway station house was moved from Swift Creek, a mile west, in 1927. Alexander Kushnir, the section foreman, was asked by the railroad to poll the local citizens concerning a name for the new location. The railroad suggested “Valemount” as an alternative to the suggestion of “Burgoyne,” commemorating Jim Burgoyne who had worked in the area for many years.

The Swift Creek post office was changed to Valemount in 1928.

References:

  • Bohi, Charles W. Canadian National’s Western Depots. The Country Stations in Western Canada. Railfare Enterprises, 1977
  • Topping, William. A checklist of British Columbia post offices. Vancouver: published by the author, 7430 Angus Drive, 1983
  • Jasper-Yellowhead Historical Society. Jasper, Alberta: Jasper-Yellowhead Historical Society. Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives . Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives
  • Wikipedia. Valemount

Urling (railway point)

British Columbia. Railway Point
On Canadian National Railway, W side of Fraser River between Torpy River and Morkill River
53.6833 N 120.8667 W — Map 93H/10 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1914 (GTP Timetable)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
134 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 45 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914

Possibly named after someone in the Urling family.

References:

  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Bohi, Charles W., and Kozma, Leslie S. Canadian National’s Western Stations. Don Mills, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002