Rooney

British Columbia. Railway point
Former name of Goat River station
53°32’00” N 120°34’00” W GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1914 (GTP Timetable)
Not currently an official name.
117 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
This station appears on:

Grand Trunk Pacific map from around 1912
Grand Trunk Pacific timetable (1162 miles from Winnipeg) from 1914
Grand Trunk Pacific timetable from 1914
Grand Trunk Pacific map from around 1918
Canadian National Railway map from 1925

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Mile 117 (west of the Yellowhead Pass) was named “Rooney,” after W. J. Rooney, superintendent of construction in charge of the Grand Trunk Pacific Telegraph Service. In the 1930s Rooney authored several articles in the journal Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity. As a member of the department of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Rooney contributed a chapter on Earth-currents to Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity (1939), volume eight of the Physics of the Earth series.

Sometime between 1918 and 1925 the station was renamed “Goat River.” The name “Rooney” appears on the 1925 CNR map.

During the construction of the GTP there was a hospital at mile 114 which was west of the bridge over the Goat River. The siding and Rooney station was one and a half miles west of the Goat River bridge.

Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory, 1918:

ROONEY: a siding on the G. T. P. Railway, 28 miles west of McBride, and 9 miles east of Loos. Local resources: Farming and prospecting.
Charles Brackel, prospector
Gus Gunderson, section foreman
Mentz Martinson, farming
John VanSlack, farming

References:

  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive
  • Rooney, W. J. “The significance and accuracy of measurements of Earth-current potentials.” Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, Vol 32, No, 3 (1932):363-374. American Geophysical Union
  • Fleming, J. A., editor. Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity. Physics of the Earth. Vol. 8. New York and London: McGraw-Hill, 1939. Internet Archive
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017

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