Flows NE into Fraser River, SE of Castle Creek
53.2 N 120 W — Map 93H/1 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1871 (Trutch)
Name officially adopted in 1963
Official in BC – Canada
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919 [Raush (Raushuswap) River]
According to British Columbia Geographical Names, the original name was “Rivière au Shuswap,” abbreviated as “R. au Shuswap” on Trutch’s 1871 map of British Columbia [the text is compressed, and could easily be misinterpreted as RauShuswap.] Labelled “RauShuswap River” on Jorgensen’s 1895 map of B.C. Labelled “Raush (Raushuswap) River” on BC map 3H, 1914, 1915, 1919, and 1923, following the Geographic Board of Canada suggestion that Raush be adopted, being an abbreviation for Rivière AU SHuswap, in place of Raushuswap, in itself a corrupted abbreviation and too long a name for such a small river.
The river was still known as the Shuswap River in 1910, when Louie Knutson met Secwepemc people (known in English as Shuswap] camping nearby (Kiwa Creek was called the Little Shuswap).
“The local name of the Big Shuswap conflicts with the Shuswap River further south and appears on recent government maps as Raushwap or Rausch River (from Riviere au Shuswap),” wrote Munday in 1925. The government maps that Munday mentions, using the spellings Raushwap and/or Rausch, are not identified.
The Raush Valley post office operated from 1915 to 1923; there are no known examples of the cancellation mark.
- Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “In the Cariboo Range – Mt. David Thompson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 15 (1925):130-136
- Wheeler, Marilyn [1932–2016]. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979
- Topping, William. A checklist of British Columbia post offices. Vancouver: published by the author, 7430 Angus Drive, 1983
- British Columbia Geographical Names. Raush River