When Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910] passed this way in 1863, he named these falls on the south side of Moose Lake “Rockingham Falls.” Cheadle’s companion, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877], was related to the Rockingham family. (The third Earl Fitzwilliam married Lady Anne Watson-Wentworth, eldest daughter of Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquess of Rockingham, Earl of Malton, who was Prime Minister of England from 1765 to 1766, and again in 1782.)
On some maps they are called “Rainbow Falls,” and the provincial parks branch calls them “Thunder Falls.” The creek that the falls are on is still called “Rockingham.”
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
- White, James [1863–1928]. “Place names in the vicinity of Yellowhead Pass.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):107-114
- Valemount Historic Society. Yellowhead Pass and its People. Valemount, B.C.: 1984