Origin of the name unknown.

This glacier was called “Terraced Glacier” by Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945], leader of the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition, “owing to a fine glacier at its head which rises in three distinct terraces to the Reef Névé and forms one of its outlets on this side. All three will furnish splendid fields of exploration and many fine climbs of peaks that are as yet untouched, midst whose recesses are hidden wonderful alpine valleys.”

A steppe is an extensive treeless plain; in this case the word seems to mean “stepped.” A névé is the field of frozen snow on the upper part of a glacier.

“Steppe Creek” was adopted in 1951 as labelled on Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission Sheet 31, 1922, and as listed in the 1930 BC Gazetteer.

This creek, and glacier at its headwaters, were labelled “Terrace Creek” and “Terrace Glacier” on the 1912 topographic map of Mount Robson by Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945].

“We travelled south for 12 miles on a wide-open flat, until it became flanked on either side by steep mountains,” wrote Ervin MacDonald of his family’s 1907 trip through the Yellowhead Pass. “Here on the west side of the valley close to the base of a mountain range was McLennan River. The valley itself, we had been told, was called Starvation Flats. Nine years earlier a party of eastern Canadians heading for the Klondike had lost their way in the late fall. Trapped in this seemingly pleasant valley by sickness and injuries, heavy snow and bitter cold, they had run out of grub. Without snowshoes it was impossible for them to walk through the drifts. Having no idea how to fend for themselves in the bush, they became worn out and discouraged, and before spring all of them had died of starvation. ”

According to another report, “Dad Gordon first came into the area with pack horses. They had nothing to eat and had to kill their horses for food to keep from starving. One man died and was buried in the area known as Starvation or Deadman Flats.”

Robert W. Starratt (d. 1967) was born in New Brunswick. During the 1930s, he pioneered bush flying in the north, operating Starratt Airways from Hudson, Ontario, until it was integrated with Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1941. During World War II he served as director of steel procurement for the Depart of Munitions and Supply in Ottawa. He came to Canoe River as president of Canyon Creek Forest Products in 1950. He and his wife Iris (previously referred to incorrectly as Evelyn) moved to Cedarside in 1952, and in 1957 purchased 1200 acres of land south of Valemount. After Robert’s death his family donated 600 acres of their ranch to the province.

The wildlife sanctuary is managed by the B.C. Wildlife Branch and Ducks Unlimited.

The ranch house was built in the early 1920s by the Jayes. Three old bachelors, Charles Dredger (1883-1970), Louie Noon and Eddie Egan (d. ca. 1940), purchased the ranch in 1931. Dredger said, “That’s how this place got the name of the Stag Ranch, and it’s been staggering ever since.”

Dredger came to the area in 1911, while the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad was under construction. He drove scows transporting supplies down the Fraser River from Tête Jaune Cache to Prince George. After guiding their unwieldy craft downriver, the bargemen then had to walk back, a distance of 160 miles. Charlie made the trip five times.

The creek is possibly named for Bill Spittal, who had doings in the area in 1907.

Ervin and Angus MacDonalds met Spittal in 1907, while they were on their way west through the Yellowhead Pass to look for land in British Columbia. They ran into Spittal and “two young Irishmen name of Monohan” while rafting across the MacLeod River. “Spittal had got this Irish company to grubstake him, as he had told them some tales about hitting good placer claims on a big creek about 10 or 12 miles west of Tête Jaune Cache,” according to Ervin. The MacDonalds accompanied the prospectors to Spittal’s creek. For three days, nobody could find any color. “Finally Spittal got worked up about it, and lost his temper and says, ‘Darn it, there ought to be gold here because I put it here!’ This blew the prospecting party all to hell.”

The MacDonalds went on to settle in the Cariboo. “Two years later we heard of Spittal,” said Angus. “Some Indians came into the 70 Mile House with a story about white men starving up in the Clearwater country, and the police came through our ranch to look for them. Apparently Spittal had got hold of some ore samples and showed them to people claiming they were from a mine he had found up there. They paid him money to take them to it in the fall and got snowed in. The only thing that saved them from starvation was shooting one of their horses.”

According to another version of the story, Spittal had convinced three partners to head up the Goat River trail from Barkerville. When an expected cache of supplies at the Fraser River was missing, Spittal’s party went to the cabin of two trappers, Steinhoff and Bogardus. The trappers offered enough grub for the prospectors to return to Barkerville. Two of the partners, Baker and McCurdie, accepted and headed back. They took a wrong turn up Macleod Creek and froze to death. Spittle and the remaining partner raided Steinhoff and Bogardus’s cabin and headed for the Shuswap Indian village at Tête Jaune Cache. There they stayed until spring, when the police came in. Spittal, an American citizen who had been in trouble for smuggling Chinese aliens, was deported.