Author Archives: Swany

Minotaur Peak

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British Columbia. Peak
S of Geikie Creek
52.65 N 118.385 W — Map 083D09 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada

The minotaur was a monster of Greek mythology, having the body of a man and the head of a bull. The peak was named by alpinist Cyril G. Wates [1883–1946] in 1929, according to Putnam. I haven’t found any record of this in Wates’s articles in the Canadian Alpine Journal.

References:

  • Wates, Cyril G. [1883–1946]. “Mount Geikie.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 13 (1923):47-53
  • Wates, Cyril G. [1883–1946]. “The Geikie Valley in 1923.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 14 (1924):51-59
  • Wates, Cyril G. [1883–1946], and Gibson, E. Rex [1892–1957]. “The Ramparts in 1927.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 16 (1927):85-95
  • Wates, Cyril G. [1883–1946]. “The Eremite and beyond.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 22 (1933):64-70
  • Wates, Cyril G. [1883–1946]. “Following the footsteps of the fur traders.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 25 (1937):59-68
  • Putnam, William Lowell [1924–2014]; Boles, Glendon Webber [1934–2022]; Laurilla, Roger W. [1959–]. Placenames of the Canadian Alps. Revelstoke, B.C.: Footprint, 1990
  • Boles, Glendon Webber [1934–2022]; Laurilla, Roger W. [1959–]; Putnam, William Lowell [1924–2014]. Canadian Mountain Place Names : the Rockies and Columbia Mountains. Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books, 2006. Internet Archive

Miette Pass

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Alberta-BC boundary. Pass
Athabasca River and Fraser River drainages
Headwaters of Grant Brook and Miette River
53 N 118.65 W — Map 83D/15 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1912
Official in BC – Canada
This pass appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 30 (surveyed in 1924)
Miette Pass — Centre Passage. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, III. 1925

Miette Pass — Centre Passage.
Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, III. 1925

Baptiste Millette, an employee of the fur-trading North West Company, was the namesake of Roche Miette and other “Miette” place names in the vicinity.

References:

  • Franchère, Gabriel [1786–1863], and Lamb, William Kaye [1904–1999], editor. Journal of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1969. Internet Archive
  • 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, p. 10. Whyte Museum
Also see:

Miette Hill

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Alberta-BC boundary. Hill
E of Yellowhead Lake
52.85 N 118.3833 W — Map 83D/16 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada
This hill appears on:
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900 [as “Miette Mts.”]
Boundary Commission Sheet 29 (surveyed in 1917)
Boundary Commission Sheet 29 A (surveyed in 1917)

Baptiste Millette, an employee of the fur-trading North West Company, was the namesake of Roche Miette and other “Miette” place names in the vicinity.

Miette Hill on the Continental Divide drains into Clairvaux Creek on the Alberta side. Clairvaux Creek is a tributary of Miette River in the Athabasca River drainage.

Also see:

Mica Mountain

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British Columbia. Mountain
SW of junction of Tête Creek and Fraser River
52.8833 N 119.5333 W — Map 83D/13 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1900 (McEvoy)
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BC – Canada
This mountain appears on:
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Tête Jaune Cache, showing old camping ground of fur trappers. In the distance is Mica Mountain. 1910

Tête Jaune Cache, showing old camping ground of fur trappers. In the distance is Mica Mountain. 1910
F.A. Talbot, New Garden of Canada

In 1882 James MacKinlay of Kamloops found a deposit of mica on this mountain. The fifteen-foot wide vein of fair grade, light green muscovite was to tantalize various miners for the next several years. In 1887 John Fremont Smith of Kamloops organized an expedition which included Louis, chief of one of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) bands, and a number of his retainers. With ever-changing crews, Smith pegged away at what he called his Bonanza Mine until at least 1899. In 1912 Smith was appointed Agent for the Kamloops Indian Agency, which included the North Thompson.

Frederick Talbot travelled through the area in 1910 with a party of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway employees. He wrote,

Certainly there is plenty of scope for development in all sorts of ways. The mountains teem with minerals of all descriptions, Keller showing us specimens of galena, gold, silver and other valuable metals, claims for which he had staked out. Mica Mountain is a great storehouse of mica, and some of the mineral obtained from it is quite noteworthy. It is white, and of good cleavage, and sheets from 32 inches square upwards can be readily obtained. If such veins are extensive, the mica mining prospect here is brilliant indeed. About twenty claims have already been staked, and the large block of this mineral which carried off a distinguished award at the last Paris Exhibition was mined on this mountain. When the neighbourhood becomes more accessible, prospectors will pour into the country, and carry out their task upon a broad, scientific basis, whereas up to the present only the surface here and there has been scratched. The wealth in the mountains hereabouts is beyond human conception, and, after the experience of Cobalt, he would be a rash man indeed, no matter what his geological and other qualifications might be, who would dare to say what could not be found.

References:

  • Talbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose [1880–1924]. The new garden of Canada. By pack-horse and canoe through undeveloped new British Columbia. London: Cassell, 1911. Internet Archive
  • Augustine, Alpheus Price [d. 1928]. “Report on Surveys on the South Fork of Fraser River.” Report of the Minister of Lands for the Province of British Columbia for the year ending 31st December 1912, (1913):240-242. Google Books
  • MacGregor, James Grierson. Overland by the Yellowhead. Saskatoon: Western Producer, 1974. Internet Archive
Also see:

McPhee Road

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Feature type: road
Province: British Columbia
Location: Forks N off Raush Valley Road

Ontario-born Dan McPhee (b. ca. 1886) moved to the Dunster area in the early 1920s. A licensed log scaler, he worked for local mills, and sold hay to their horse-logging operations.

Mary Adeline Amelia McPhee (b. Alexandria, Ontario, 1895, d. McBride, 1962) was resident of Dunster since the late 1920s, when she came west to join her brother, Dan McPhee, at the Dunster farm.

References:

  • Personal correspondence.
  • Valley Echo. Weekly newspaper published in McBride from 1957–62.

McNaughton Road

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British Columbia. Road
Forks N off Hwy 16 W of Dunster
Roads are not in the official geographical names databases

John Alexander McNaughton (1893-1958) and his wife Bessie Agnes McNaughton (1893-1955) homesteaded in the Dunster area in 1920. John was born in Ontario, Bessie in Michigan. Around 1924 John started to work on the Canadian National Railroad section crew, and continued until 1937 when they moved to Prince Rupert for the railway. Their son Don remained on the farm.

References:

  • Wheeler, Marilyn. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979