Flows SW from Fortress Lake into Wood Arm, Kinbasket Lake
52.2111 N 118.175 W — Map 83D/1 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1974
Official in BC – Canada
Boundary Commission Sheet 26 (surveyed in 1920)
Boundary Commission Sheet 27 (surveyed in 1920 & 1921)
Called “Flat Heart River” by David Thompson [1770–1857] in 1811, who descended it after crossing the Athabasca Pass.
Our residence was near the junction of two Rivers from the Mountains with the Columbia: the upper Stream which forms the defile by which we came to the Columbia, I named the Flat Heart, from the Men being dispirited ; it had nothing particular. The other was the Canoe River ; which ran through a bold rude valley, of a steady descent, which gave to this River a very rapid descent without any falls….
In his edition of the journal of Edward Ermatinger [1797–1876], who crossed the Athabasca Pass with a fur brigade in 1827, James White notes that “the Wood river was apparently so named after the dense forest traversed by the portage road up its valley.”
- Thompson, David [1770–1857]. David Thompson’s Narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784-1812. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, editor. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1916, p. 451. University of British Columbia
- Ermatinger, Edward [1797–1876], and White, James [1863–1928], editor. Edward Ermatinger’s York Factory express journal, being a record of journeys made between Fort Vancouver and Hudson Bay in the years 1827–1828. Ottawa: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1912, p. 79. Internet Archive