“Other names [for Yellowhead Pass] noted in the literature include Cowdung Pass, Leatherhead Pass, Jasper Pass, Jasper House Pass, Tête Jaune Passe, and Rocky Mountain Pass…”. (early map/document dates not cited)
Leather Peak
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Category Archives: Place
Wapiti Pass
Alberta-BC boundary. Pass: Smoky River drainage
Between Framstead Creek and Wapiti River
54.4331 N 120.8178 W — Map 93I/7 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BC – Canada
Between Framstead Creek and Wapiti River
54.4331 N 120.8178 W — Map 93I/7 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BC – Canada
“Wapiti” is named after the Cree word for elk (wapiti).
On the south-west side, Wapiti Pass is at the headwaters of Framstead Creek, which flows via Herrick Creek and the McGregor River to the Fraser River. On the north-east side, Wapiti Pass is at the headwaters of the Wapiti River which flows into the Smoky River and thence to the Peace River.
Mary Lenore Jobe Akeley [1878–1966] visited the area with Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] and party in 1915:
From Mt. Alexander Mackenzie, we travelled north to Jarvis Pass, and crossed pass to the Wapiti. This was our “farthest north.” Returning via Jarvis Pass, the Porcupine, Providence Valley and Sheep-Creek, we crossed to the Muddy, which we followed to its mouth, rafted the Big Smoky below the mouth of the Sulphur and followed the old Indian trail to Grand Cache. From this point we travelled up the Sulphur, crossed Hardscrabble Pass to Rockslide Creek, and again struck the Big Smoky near the mouth of Short River (“Glacier Creek,” Collie and Mumm), and thence returned to Robson Station the 1st of September.
In October 1917 she returned with Phillips:
The early winter of 1917 my desire to make a winter trip through the northern Canadian Rockies was realized. I was I fortunate In being able to combine my trip with Mr. Donald Phillips’s business of taking in supplies for a scientific expedition to the Wapiti River, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution….
Once across the Wapiti Pass we found ourselves in a veritable den of wolves. Their tracks were everywhere. They came near our camps and howled so dismally in the night-time, that we did not hesitate to burn fuel lavishly; in broad daylight the morning we were breaking our ten days’ camp on the Wapiti, they became so inquisitive and so vocal that they almost stampeded our outfit; and once, as we were moving our pack train at twilight along the Wapiti River, two black monsters crossed in front of us and stood in the timber a few yards away yelping and whining like hungry curs. They are vicious beasts and are afraid of nothing smaller than grizzly.
.
“Wapiti” is listed at the Indigenous Geographical Names dataset as a word of Cree language.
References:
- Jobe Akeley, Mary Lenore [1878–1966]. “Mt. Alexander Mackenzie.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 7 (1916):62–73
- Jobe Akeley, Mary Lenore [1878–1966]. “A winter journey to Mt. Sir Alexander and the Wapiti.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 9 (1918):58-65
Columbia Department
.
A fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest
Unofficial
A fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest
Unofficial
Oregon Country / Columbia District, 1818–1846
Wikipedia
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810. The North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 under which the Columbia District became known as the Columbia Department. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 marked the effective end of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia Department.
References:
- Wikipedia. Columbia District
Gendarme Mountain
Alberta. Mount
Headwaters of Smoky River, 8 km N of Berg Lake
53.2103 N -119.2094 W Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1912 (Wheeler)
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in Canada
Headwaters of Smoky River, 8 km N of Berg Lake
53.2103 N -119.2094 W Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1912 (Wheeler)
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in Canada
This mount appears on:
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Jobe’s map Jarvis Pass to Yellowhead 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1923
Boundary Commission Sheet 32 (surveyed in 1922 &1924)
Boundary Commission Sheet 33 (surveyed in 1923)
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Jobe’s map Jarvis Pass to Yellowhead 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1923
Boundary Commission Sheet 32 (surveyed in 1922 &1924)
Boundary Commission Sheet 33 (surveyed in 1923)
Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] led the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Expedition to Mount Robson. In his report he stated,
Owing to a peculiar isolated rock pillar that rises from its eastern arête, the peak has been referred to here as “Mt. Gendarme,” the view from the summit was of tremendous interest on account of the new features it disclosed.
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
Caledonian Valley
Alberta-BC boundary. Former name: Mackenzie River drainage
Valley of the Miette River and upper Fraser River through Yellowhead Pass
Not currently an official name.
Valley of the Miette River and upper Fraser River through Yellowhead Pass
Not currently an official name.
This former name appears on:
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900 [as “Caledonia Valley”]
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900 [as “Caledonia Valley”]
The valley of the Miette and upper Fraser rivers was formerly so called because it was traversed by the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trail to New Caledonia (present British Columbia between latitudes 51° 30′, and 57° 00′); name now obsolete.
References:
- Canadian Board on Geographical Names. Place-names of Alberta. Published for the Geographic Board by the Department of the Interior. Ottawa: Department of the Interior, 1928. Hathi Trust
- Smyth, David. “Jasper National Park: some fur trade place names of the Yellowhead Pass.” Canoma, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1985):33-37. Natural Resources Canada
Also see:
Roche Miette
Alberta. Mountain
Approximately 30 km NE of Jasper
53.1467 N 117.9197 W — Map 83 F/4 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1814 (Franchère)
Name officially adopted in 1956
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
Approximately 30 km NE of Jasper
53.1467 N 117.9197 W — Map 83 F/4 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1814 (Franchère)
Name officially adopted in 1956
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This mountain appears on:
Palliser Map 1863
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Frederick Talbot’s map GTP 1910
Schäffer map of visits in 1907 and 1908
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Palliser Map 1863
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Frederick Talbot’s map GTP 1910
Schäffer map of visits in 1907 and 1908
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Jasper House and Roche Miette, Sandford Fleming expedition. Photo: Charles Horetzky, 1872
The purple crags of Roche Miette. From a painting by George Horne Russell.
In Burpee, 1914, p. 200
Internet Archive
“Roche Miette” and other local features derive their names from Baptiste Millette, an employee of the fur-trading North West Company.
When Gabriel Franchère [1786–1863] crossed the Athabasca Pass in 1814 on his way from Fort Astoria to Montréal, the name “le Rocher à Miette” was already in use. He wrote in his journal for May 18 [1]:
Nous passames un gros Cap qui s’appelle le Rocher à Miette, ou ayant sondé la profondeur de l’eau au piéd de ce rocher, nous trouvâmes la riviére en cet endroit Guéable. … Le Rocher à Miette dont j’ai parlé plus haut qui est très élevé, vue du lac représente le portail d’une Eglise prise de Côté.
[We passed a headland called Miette Rock, sounded the depth of water at its foot, and found that the [Athabasca] river could be forded at this spot.… The Miette Rock that I mentioned earlier, which is very high, when seen from the lake resembles the side view of a church portal.]
In the archives of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Parks Canada historian David Smyth has found records of at least six Miettes engaged by the North West Company in the period between 1797 and 1819 [2]:
None spelled their last name Miette; one was recorded as Millet, while the others were almost exclusively spelled Millette. One of these, a Baptiste Millette, is almost certainly the employee after whom Roche Miette and the other features are named. According to a North West Company account book of 1811-21 there was an ex-employee named Baptiste Millette or Milliette living as a freeman in the Athabasca River Department in 1812 and 1813. His trading account ends with an 1813 entry, and nothing further about him is known either before or after this time. None of the other Millettes were apparently stationed in that department.
Lieutenant Aemilius Simpson, a newly engaged Hudson’s Bay Company officer, recorded the first version of the mountain climbing story in 1826. In his journal he described ‘Milletes Rock’ and stated that it derived its name “from a Canadian, who asserted that he had ascended to its summit”.
Paul Kane [1810–1871] was told a more embellished tale in 1846 [3], while Dr. James Hector [1834–1907] recorded a simpler version in 1859 [4].
Despite the unlikely details of Kane’s story and of later versions, it is probably true that Baptiste Millette climbed Roche Miette before Franchère’s visit.
[George Horne Russell’s painting [5]]
Also see
- Paul Kane [1810–1871]
- Miette Hill
- Miette Pass
- Miette River
References:
- 1. 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, pp 162, 300. Internet Archive [accessed 10 March 2025]
- 2. Smyth, David. “Jasper National Park: some fur trade place names of the Yellowhead Pass.” Canoma, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1985):33-37. Natural Resources Canada [accessed 10 March 2025]
- 3. Kane, Paul [1810–1871]. Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America. From Canada to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. London: Longman, Brown, 1859. Internet Archive [accessed 10 March 2025]
- 4. Hector, James [1834–1907], and Spry, Irene Mary Biss [1907–1998], editor. “Hector’s Journal.” The papers of the Palliser Expedition 1857-60, (1968)
- 5. Burpee, Lawrence Johnstone [1873–1946]. Among the Canadian Alps. New York: John Lane, 1914. Internet Archive [accessed 11 October 2025]
North Canoe Glacier
British Columbia. Glacier: Columbia River drainage
Headwaters of Canoe River
52.75 N 119.7 W — Map 83D/13 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BC – Canada
Headwaters of Canoe River
52.75 N 119.7 W — Map 83D/13 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BC – Canada
References:
- Anon. “Place names in the Premier Range, Cariboo Mountains, B.C.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 46 (1963):20
Charles Ernest Fay map Canadian Alps 1916
Sketch map of the Canadian Alps. Scale, 1:4,000,000.
The insets show in greater detail the Selkirks (upper right) and the Rocky Mountains (lower left) where they are crossed by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Note. The altitudes of the following peaks should read thus: Mt. Bryce (52° N. and 117⅜° W.), 11,800 ft.; Mt. Sorcerer (51½° N. and 118° W.), 10,410 ft.; Mt. Assiniboine (51° N. and 115⅔° W.), 11,860 ft.; Mt. Collie (lower left inset), 10,315 ft.
The following changes should also be made: Upper Columbia L.” (50¼° N. and 116° W.) to Columbia L.; Mt. Thomson” (lower left inset) to Mt. Thompson.
Charles Ernest Fay [1846–1931] was an American alpinist and educator. Professor Fay first visited the Canadian Rockies in 1890, and was a pioneer in the development of mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirks. He was a founder of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and served as president in 1878, 1881, 1893, and 1905; he was also a founder and the first president of the American Alpine Club (1902-1904).
This map includes:
Sheep Creek
Sir Alexander, Mount (as Mt. Alexander Mackenzie)
Smoky River
Stoney River (as Stony River)
Sheep Creek
Sir Alexander, Mount (as Mt. Alexander Mackenzie)
Smoky River
Stoney River (as Stony River)
References:
- Fay, Charles Ernest [1846–1923]. “Recent Mountaineering in the Canadian Alps.” Geographical Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1916):1. JSTOR
- Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “Professor Charles E. Fay, Litt. D.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 19 (1930):113. Alpine Club of Canada
- Wikipedia. Charles Ernest Fay
Also see:
Boreal Creek
British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows E into Doré River
53.2653 N 120.2889 W — Map 93H/8 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1994
Official in BC – Canada
Flows E into Doré River
53.2653 N 120.2889 W — Map 93H/8 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1994
Official in BC – Canada
Adopted in 1994 as a long-established local name. Referred to locally as the north branch of the Doré River.
References:
- British Columbia Geographical Names. Boreal Creek
Ozalenka Creek
British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows SE into Boreal Creek, a tributary of Doré River
53.2597 N 120.4069 W — Map 93H/8 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1994
Official in BC – Canada
Flows SE into Boreal Creek, a tributary of Doré River
53.2597 N 120.4069 W — Map 93H/8 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1994
Official in BC – Canada
Adopted in 1994 as an established local name. This is the “Ozalenka valley” that is a popular recreation destination, named in association with Ozalenka Peak.
References:
- British Columbia Geographical Names. Ozalenka Creek
Also see: