Category Archives: Place

Mount Fitzwilliam

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British Columbia. Mount
SE of Yellowhead Lake
52.8306 N 118.4569 W — Map 083D16 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1863 (Milton and Cheadle)
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This mount appears on:
Milton and Cheadle’s map 1865
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Boundary Commission Sheet 29 (surveyed in 1917)
In 1863, the party of William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877] and Dr. Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910] was camped on the shore of Buffalo Dung Lake (Yellowhead Lake). Their Iroquois guide assured the travelers that two nearby mountains “should be known from that time forth as Le montaigne de Milord and Montaigne de Docteur. We, however,” wrote Cheadle, “took the liberty of naming them Mount Fitzwilliam and Mount Bingley.” Milton’s title was Viscount Milton of Fitzwilliam. Cheadle described Mount Fitzwilliam as “a fine hill, cone-like and terraced.” The mountain was called Mount Pélée by Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] in 1907.

References:

  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865. Internet Archive [accessed 10 March 2025]
  • Coleman, Arthur Philemon [1852–1939]. The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Internet Archive [accessed 3 March 2025]
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Mount Columbia

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Alberta. mount
Columba Icefield
52.1475 N 117.45 W — Map 83 C/3 — Google — GeoHack — Bivouac
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in Canada
Elevation: 3747 m

The highest mountain in Alberta. It takes its name from the Columbia River. In 1872, Robert Gray, an American sea captain, discovered the river’s mouth, between present-day Washington and Oregon, and named it after his ship, “Columbia.”

References:

  • Karamitsanis, Aphrodite [1961–]. Place names of Alberta. Volume 1: Mountains, Mountain Parks and Foothills. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1991
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Mount Clemenceau

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British Columbia. mount
Just inside BC-Alberta boundary, E of Wood Arm Kinbasket Lake
52.2475 N 117.9578 W — Map 083C04 — Google — GeoHack — Bivouac
Name officially adopted in 1961
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
Elevation: 3657 m
Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) was a French political figure. Known as “The Tiger,” he served twice as premier of France (1906-1901, 1917-1920) and was instrumental in writing the terms of the Versailles Treaty.

In 1892 Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] called this peak Pyramid Mountain. The current name was bestowed in 1919 by the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission .

References:

  • Putnam, William Lowell [1924–2014]; Boles, Glendon Webber [1934–2022]; Laurilla, Roger W. [1959–]. Placenames of the Canadian Alps. Revelstoke, B.C.: Footprint, 1990. Internet Archive

Mount Cheadle

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British Columbia. Mount
E side of North Thompson River, N of Mud Lake
52.3333 N 119.0833 W — Map 83D/6 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1863 (Milton and Cheadle)
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This mount appears on:
Milton and Cheadle’s map 1865
Mt. Cheadle and upper part of Garnet River, North Thompson River. Benjamin F. Baltzly, 1871

Mt. Cheadle and upper part of Garnet River, North Thompson River. Benjamin F. Baltzly, 1871
McCord Stewart Museum

In 1863, British adventurers William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877] and Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910 awoke to “a glorious morning” in the valley of the North Thompson River. “Milton chose a fine hill to the left as his mountain, and I as still higher to the right,” Cheadle wrote. “His cone-like and terraced, mine a long range of very rugged rocks, very high and snow-clad with green slopes and bright pines half way up. Very fine indeed.”

Cheadle accompanied Milton on a journey across Canada in 1862–63. They crossed the Rocky Mountains through Yellowhead Pass, almost starved in the North Thompson country, and eventually straggled into Kamloops. They visited the Cariboo gold fields before returning to England by ship from Victoria. Cheadle, the older and more resourceful of the two, assumed most of the responsibility for their journey. He spelled out their story in two books, Journal of a Trip across Canada and The North West Passage by Land, which has gone through ten editions.

In 1865, Cheadle resumed medical practice in London, and married in the following year. He met with great success in his career, and served as dean of St. Mary’s Medical School from 1869 to 1873. In the face of much opposition, he stood among the early supporters of women’s claims to a right to practice medicine.

References:

  • Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. Cheadle’s Journal of Trip Across Canada 1862-63. Ottawa: Graphic Publishers, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865. Internet Archive
  • Grant, George Monro [1835–1902]. Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming’s Expedition through Canada in 1872. Being a Diary Kept During a Journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the Expedition of the Engineer-in-Chief of the Canadian Pacific and Intercolonial Railways. Toronto: James Campbell and Son, 1873. Google Books
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The location of Mt. Milton and the restoration of the names ‘Mt. Milton and Mt. Cheadle’.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1943). American Alpine Club
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The location of Mt. Milton and the restoration of the names ‘Mt. Milton and Mt. Cheadle’.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1943). American Alpine Club
  • Story, Norah. The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967
  • Wikipedia. Walter Butler Cheadle
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Mount Chamberlin

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British Columbia. Mount
SW of Mount Robson
53.0083 N 119.3375 W — Map 83E/3 — Google — GeoHack
Official in BC – Canada
Peakfinder
Edson Joseph Chamberlin

Edson Joseph Chamberlin
Wikipedia

Name adopted by the Geographic Board of Canada in 1917 after Edson Joseph Chamberlin [1852-1924], president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway at the time. Edson Chamberlin is also the namesake of the town of Edson, Alberta.

In 1909 Chamberlin became general manager and then vice president of the Grand Trunk. In 1912 he became the president when Charles Melville Hays lost his life on the RMS Titanic. Chamberlin’s presidency differed from Hays’s in that he led the Grand Trunk to expand westward as part of the Canadian transcontinental railway. He remained president until he retired in 1917. Chamberlin died at Pasadena, California, in 1924.

Edson Chamberlin is not related to Rollin Thomas Chamberlin [1881–1948], the American geologist who is namesake of Chamberlin Peak and Chamberlin Glacier, in the Cariboo Mountains about 50 kilometres to the south.

References:

  • Anon. “Place names in the Premier Range, Cariboo Mountains, B.C.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 46 (1963):20
  • Wikipedia. Edson Joseph Chamberlin
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Chamberlin, Mount
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Mount Challenger

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British Columbia. Other name of Mount Stanley Baldwin

In 1924, Rollin T. Chamberlin, Allen Carpé, and A. L. Withers made a number of first ascents in the Cariboo Mountains, including Mount Titan (now Mount Sir Wilfred Laurier) and Mount Challenger (now Mount Stanley Baldwin).

References:

  • H. S. Hall, Jr. “Allen Carpé 1894–1932.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 21 (1932):163. Alpine Club of Canada
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Mount Carpé

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British Columbia. Mount
S of Canoe River, just SW of Valemount
52.7 N 119.5333 W — Map 83D/12 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1949
Name officially adopted in 1963
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
Rollin T. Chamberlin, L. E. “Slim” Goodell, Allen Carpe, A. L. Withers. Photo George Burns

Rollin T. Chamberlin, L. E. “Slim” Goodell, Allen Carpe, A. L. Withers. Photo George Burns
University of Chicago

Allen Carpé [1894–1932] was an American engineer and mountaineer who in 1924, along with Rollin Thomas Chamberlin [1881–1948], and A. L. (Pete) Withers, went up Tête Creek “and made some fine climbs, among them Mount Sir Wilfrid Laurier.” (1) Carpé was a member of the Alpine Club of Canada since 1920. He lost his life on Mount McKinley in May 1932, as the leader of a party making scientific observations relating to cosmic rays.

The name was adopted at the suggestion of the Alpine Club of Canada following a proposal by the 1949 mountaineering party of Sterling Brown Hendricks [1902–1981] and Andrew John Kauffman [1920–2002].(2)

References:

  • 1. Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “Explorations in the Southern Cariboos.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 27 (1939):48-61
  • 2. Hendricks, Sterling Brown [1902–1981], and Kauffman, Andrew John [1920–2002]. “Cariboo Climbing.” American Alpine Journal, 7:2 (1950). American Alpine Club
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Mount Assiniboine

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Feature type: mount
Province: British Columbia
Elevation: 3618 m
Assiniboin

Assiniboin

Mount Assiniboine, also known as Assiniboine Mountain, is a mountain located on the Great Divide, on the British Columbia/Alberta border in Canada.At 3,618 m (11,870 ft), it is the highest peak in the Southern Continental Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Due to Assiniboine’s pyramidal shape, it has been unofficially named the “Matterhorn” of North America. Mt. Assiniboine rises nearly 1,525 m (5,003 ft) above Lake Magog.

Mt. Assiniboine was named by George M. Dawson in 1885. When Dawson saw Mt. Assiniboine from Copper Mountain, he saw a plume of clouds trailing away from the top. This reminded him of the plumes of smoke emanating from the teepees of Assiniboine Indians.

Morkill River

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British Columbia. River: Fraser River drainage
Flows SW into Fraser River near Loos
53.6 N 120.7 W — Map 93H/10 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1915
Name officially adopted in 1925
Official in BC – Canada
This river appears on:
Phillips’s map NW of Robson 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919 [as Morkill (Little Smoky)]
Boundary Commission Sheet 36 (surveyed in 1923)
Boundary Commission Sheet 37 (surveyed in 1923 & 1924)

The name was adopted in 1925 to recognize surveyor Dalby Brooks Morkill [1880–1955].

Morkill was born in Sherbrooke, Québec, and came to British Columbia in 1898. He received his commission as a British Columbia Land Surveyor in 1910. Morkill was employed in 1912 by the British Columbia government making surveys on the Fraser River between Horsey Creek and Holmes River. In 1913, with Alan S. Thompson, Morkill surveyed between Goat River and Catfish Creek.

Morkill worked on the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveys north of Yellowhead Pass in the early 1920s. Subsequently Morkill surveyed in several other areas of the Province. During his last years he spent summers at his residence at Barkerville and winters in Vancouver.

The Morkill River is known locally as the Smoky River, a name that dates back to at least 1909. (There is also a Smoky River in Alberta, headwaters at Robson Pass.)

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
  • Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors. Annual Report (1956)., 1956
  • Robson Valley Courier. Weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Press of Jasper from 1968–88 (1968–1988).
  • Andrews, Gerald Smedley [1903–2005]. Métis outpost. Memoirs of the first schoolmaster at the Métis settlement of Kelly Lake, B.C. 1923-1925. Victoria: G.S. Andrews, 1985. Internet Archive
  • Akrigg, Helen B., and Akrigg, George Philip Vernon [1913–2001]. British Columbia Place Names. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997. Internet Archive
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Morkill River
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