Category Archives: Place

Bastion Peak

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Alberta-BC boundary. Peak
Headwaters of Geikie Creek
52.7083 N 118.35 W — Map 83D/9 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada
This peak appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 28 (surveyed in 1921)
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1931
Tonquin Pass and Geikie Range from the North (Vista Peak). Photo, A.0. Wheeler

A bastion is a projecting part of a fortification, consisting of an earthwork in the form of an irregular pentagon. The feature was named by the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission 1921.

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
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Barrett Creek

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British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows N intoSwift Creek, N of Valemount
52.8667 N 119.2167 W — Map 83D/14 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1963
Official in BC – Canada

Roy Barrett’s name appears on a 1907 list of firefighters at Cranberry Lake (Valemount). In 1916, Swift Creek (railway point) had its first official wedding, when Barrett married a half-sister to Minnie Gordon. Barrett was a contractor who in the 1920s removed much of the timber on the hills of Swift Creek, overlooking the village of Valemount. He moved to Calgary or Kamloops around 1924. “After that it was reported he had disappeared and he was never heard from again,” according to Marion Dahlberg, whose family came to Valemount in 1919.

References:

  • Wheeler, Marilyn. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979
  • Valemount Historic Society. Yellowhead Pass and its People. Valemount, B.C.: 1984
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Barnes Road

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British Columbia. Road
Forks off McBride Road South
53.3094 N 120.1816 W Google — GeoHack
Roads are not in the official geographical names databases

The road is probably named after Regina-born Robert Barnes (1907–1971) who married Gladys Jeck of McBride in 1945. In 1947 they moved to the vicinity of McBride. Barnes served in the Royal Canadian Ordinance Corps from 1941 to 1946. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, and worked on the Canadian National Railway

Calgary-born Frank Barnes (b. 1928) came to Crescent Spur in 1955 to manage the Nance Lumber Company’s planer mill. After the mill closed in 1965, Barnes logged, operated a sawmill, and contracted road building and land clearing.

References:

  • Wheeler, Marilyn [1932–2016]. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979
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Barbican Peak

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British Columbia. Peak
S of Tonquin Creek
52.7167 N 118.4 W — Map 83D/9 — Google — GeoHack — Bivouac
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada
Elevation: 3086 m
This peak appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 28 (surveyed in 1921)
Tonquin Pass and Geikie Range from the North (Vista Peak). Photo, A.0. Wheeler

Tonquin Pass and Geikie Range from the North (Vista Peak).
Photo, A.0. Wheeler
Canadian Alpine Journal1922

A barbican is an outer fortification or defense to a city or castle, especially a double tower erected over a gate or bridge. The feature was named by Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveyors in 1921.

Adopted in 1951 on Jasper Park (North) as labelled on BC-Alberta Boundary sheet 28, 1921, and as identified in Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol XIII, 1923, pp.53-63.

References:

  • Wates, Cyril G. [1883–1946]. “Mount Geikie.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 13 (1923):47-53
  • 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
  • Fynn, Val A. “First ascents of Mt. Barbican 10,100 feet and of Mt.Geikie 10,854 feet.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 14 (1924):60-66
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Barbican
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Athabasca Pass

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Alberta-BC boundary. Pass
Athabasca River and Columbia River drainages
Headwaters of Whirlpool River and Pacific Creek
52.3931 N 118.1833 W — Map 83D/8 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1811 (David Thompson)
Name officially adopted in 1924
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This pass appears on:
John Arrowsmith’s map British North America 1832
Milton and Cheadle’s map 1865
Trutch’s map of BC 1871
Schäffer map of visits in 1907 and 1908
Boundary Commission Sheet 27 (surveyed in 1920 & 1921) [as “Athabaska Pass”]
Boundary Commission Sheet 27 A (surveyed in 1921) [as “Athabaska Pass”]
ATHABASCA PASS. ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Ice gorge. near first summit.. [1872]

ATHABASCA PASS. ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Ice gorge. near first summit.. [1872]
Rylatt, p. 123


Athabasca Pass. Rocky Mts. Second Summit [1872]

Athabasca Pass. Rocky Mts. Second Summit [1872]
Rylatt, p. 129

Athabasca (also Athabaska) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca, āthap-āsk-ā-w, meaning “grass or reeds here and there.” Athabasca Pass takes its name from the lake and the Athabasca River, although the headwaters of the Athabasca River are upstream of the Whirlpool River at the Columbia Icefields.

The first European to cross Athabasca Pass was David Thompson [1770–1857] of the North West Company [established 1779] in 1811. The pass became the main fur trade route from the east to the Columbia River until 1824, when the Hudson’s Bay Company [1670] closed its operations in Oregon and moved its Pacific coast headquarters to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Gabriel Franchère [1786–1863] traveled through the pass with a fur brigade in the spring of 1814. “We were obliged to stop every moment, to take breath, so stiff was the ascend,” he wrote. “After two or three hours of incredible exertions and fatigues, we arrived at the plateau or summit. On either side were immense glaciers or icebound rocks.”

References:

  • Thompson, David [1770–1857]. David Thompson’s Narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784-1812. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, editor. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1916. University of British Columbia
  • 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
  • Rylatt, Robert M. Surveying the Canadian Pacific: Memoir of a Railroad Pioneer. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “The location of Mts. Brown and Hooker.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 12 (1921–1922):123-129
  • Gainer, Brenda. The human history of Jasper National Park, Alberta. Manuscript report 441. Ottawa: Parks Canada, 1981. Parks Canada
  • Akrigg, Helen B., and Akrigg, George Philip Vernon [1913–2001]. British Columbia Place Names. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997. Internet Archive
  • Wikipedia. Athabasca Pass
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Mount Arthur Meighen

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British Columbia. Mount
S of headwaters of McLennan River
52.8036 N 119.5525 W — Map 083D13 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BC – Canada
Arthur Meighen

Arthur Meighen

Ontario-born Arthur Meighen [1874-1960] succeeded Robert Borden as Prime Minister of Canada in 1920. Meighen was responsible for many measures under which the World War I was prosecuted, including the conglomeration of the Canadian Northern Railway, Grand Trunk Railway, and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway as the nationalized Canadian National Railway.

References:

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Arctomys Valley

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British Columbia. Valley: Fraser River drainage
Between Moose River and Resplendent Creek
53.075 N 118.9 W — Map 83E/2 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (Wheeler)
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in BC – Canada
This valley appears on:
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912

“The shrill resounding whistles of numbers of hoary marmots greeted us from all sides as they sent forth their notes of surprise, indignation and warning as we topped the crest; and there is no sound that gives a more eerie feeling that this same long drawn whistle heard unexpectedly in the solitudes of the high mountain valleys. It was named Arctomys Valley in their honor.” So wrote surveyor and alpinist Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] after the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition.

Although the North American marmot is of the genus Marmota, the rodent that inhabits the Alps and Pyrenees is of the genus Arctomys, a word derived from the Latin for “mountain mouse.”

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
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