Author Archives: Swany

Tah Mountain

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Alberta-BC boundary. Proposed name
SW of Moose Pass
53.2333 N 119.0167 W — Map 83E/3 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (Walcott)
Not currently an official name.
Near view of Tah Peak rising above Moose Pass. On the left Tokana Mountain. Photograph by R. C. W. Lett. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 1912. (Walcott p 332)

Near view of Tah Peak rising above Moose Pass. On the left Tokana Mountain.
Photograph by R. C. W. Lett. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 1912. (Walcott p 332)

Among the new placenames that Charles Doolittle Walcott [1850–1927] suggested during the 1912 Smithsonian expedition to the Mount Robson area was “Tah (moose) Mountain” (8,817 feet), a peak southwest side of Moose Pass.” Walcott considered Tah to be an “Indian name” for moose

In the photo it’s identified as “Tau Peak,” and Walcott also refers to “Tau Pass.”

The mountain does not have an official name.

Also see

References:

  • Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927]. “Cambrian Formations of the Robson Peak District, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 57, No. 12 (1913):328-343. Smithsonian Institution Archives [accessed 11 April 2025]

Jörgensen Map Province of BC 1895

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Map of the Privince of British Columbia, 1895. (Detail)

Map of the Privince of British Columbia, 1895. (Detail) Internet Archive [accessed 16 April 2025]

Map of the Province of British Columbia
Compiled by direction of the Honourable G. B. Martin,
Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, Victoria, B.C.
Compiled and drawn in the Department of Lands and Works
by Gotfred Jörgensen C.E. 1895

Gotfred Emil Jörgensen (flourished c. 1890–1910) was a Danish-American civil engineer active in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington State in the late 19th and early 20h centuries. Jörgensen is elusive, and there is no record of his birth in Denmark or his relocation to the Pacific Northwest. He lived for a time in Seattle, where he appears in the 1891 directory as a Civil Engineer, but most of his work was done for the British Columbia Department of Lands and Works. In his earliest maps, he appears as a “draughtsman,” by 1891 he is listed as a “civil engineer,” and by 1909 he is the “Survey General of British Columbia.” It is possible he returned to Denmark in the early 20th century. He is most admired for his large-scale maps of Victoria City and British Columbia.

This map includes:

Athabasca River
Bad River (James Creek)
Baker Creek (Canoe)
Bear River
Boat Encampment
Brûlé Lake [as “Burnt L.”]
Bush River
Canoe River
Committee Punch Bowl
Columbia River
Cowdung Lake
Cranberry Lake
Dawson Creek
Foster Creek
Goat River
Grand Forks River
Henry House
Jasper Lake
Jasper House
Kinbasket Lake
Little Smoky River (Athabasca0
Little Smoky River (Morkill)
Maligne River
Miette River
Moose River
Moose Lake
Fraser River North Fork
North Branch of North Fork Fraser River
North Thompson River [as “North Fork”]
Parsnip River
Rau’ Shuswap [as “Rau Shuswap R.”]
Small Creek [as “Small River”]
Smoky River
Snake Indian River
South Branch of North Fork Fraser River
South Fork Fraser River
Tête Jaune Cache [note: “IND. VILL”]
Wapiti River
Whirlpool River
Willow River
Wood River
Yellowhead Pass

1913 Alpine Club of Canada Camp at Mount Robson

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References:

  • Wallace, Paul Anthony Wilson [1891–1967]. “Climbing the big peaks. An account of Alpine Climbing, 1913, by A.O. Wheeler’s camp secretary, Paul A. W. Wallace.” Banff Crag and Canyon, 3 (1913)
  • Alpine Club of Canada [founded 1906]. Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Notice of the Alpine Club of Canada, Eighth Annual Camp, 1913, to be held at Mount Robson, on the great Divide, Summit of Robson Pass (AC 0 129) (1913).
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “The Mount Robson Camp of the Alpine Club of Canada.” Alpine Journal, 27 (1913)
  • Hallowes, K. B. “Mount Robson Camp (1913).” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):149-152
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “Report of Mt. Robson camp (1913).” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):179–180
  • Parker, Elizabeth J. [1856–1944]. “A new field for mountaineering.” Scribner’s Magazine, 55 (1914)
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “The camps of the Alpine Club of Canada in 1913 and Mr. A.O. Wheeler’s exploratory work.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 28, No.198 (1914):78

1912 Walcott/Smithsonian exploration Mount Robson area

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Harry H. Blagden and Sidney S. Walcott, skinning ptarmigan at Tah Pass Camp, 1910. [Photo probably by R. C. W. Lett]

Harry H. Blagden and Sidney S. Walcott, skinning ptarmigan at Tah Pass Camp, 1910.
[Photo probably by R. C. W. Lett] Archives Society of Alberta

July 26 – September 25, 1912
(Dates based on field notes)

In 1912 Charles Doolittle Walcott [1850–1927] led a Smithsonian Institution expedition exploring the area around the “Monarch of the Canadian Rockies,” Mount Robson. None of his listed publications indicate the dates of the expedition, but his field notes cover the period from July 26 to September 5.[1]

Walcott had already written about the Canadian Rockies in 1911 as a “Geologist’s Paradise,” where he noted:

During the past three years an expedition from the Smithsonian has been making an examination of the four miles or more in thickness of bedded rocks forming the main range of the Rocky Mountains that has been pushed eastward by the great mass of the Selkirk ranges to the west. [2]

Walcott was approached by Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] to join the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada expedition. Walcott had planned to lead the group of biologists and hunters who did join the expedition, but his wife Helena died in a train accident on July 11. His son Charles Doolittle Walcott Jr. [1889–1913] took part as a hunter.

In 1912 Walcott lead his own expedition. “It was to learn the geology and the record of the life of Cambrian times that led and forced me summer after summer to traverse and live in those grand and beautiful Rockies.” His son Sidney Stephens Walcott, [1892–1977] was among the party, “all of whom were qualified by experience and physique to overcome the physical obstacles and hardships of the trip.” During this trip Walcott proposed many new names and name changes for places in the area, including Tah Pass for Moose Pass.[3]

A Smithsonian Institution publication resulted from the expedition. [4]

References:

  • 1. Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927]. Field notes : Canada, 1907, 1910, 1912-1913, 1916, and undated. 1912. Biodiversity Heritage Library [accessed 12 April 2025]
  • 2. Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927], and Walcott Jr., Charles Doolittle [1889–1913]. “A Geologist’s Paradise.” National Geographic Magazine, 22, no. 6 (1911). Internet Archive
  • 3. Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927]. “The Monarch of the Canadian Rockies.” National Geographic Magazine, (1913):626. Internet Archive [accessed 2 April 2025]
  • 4. Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927]. “Cambrian Formations of the Robson Peak District, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 57, No. 12 (1913):328-343. Smithsonian Institution Archives [accessed 11 April 2025]

Henry John Moberly

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Henry John Moberly [1835–1931]

b. 1835 — Penetanguishene, Ontario
d. 1931 — Duck Lake, Saskatchewan

  • 1855 HBC trader H. J. Moberly hunting at Jasper
  • 1858-1861 HBC trader H. J. Moberly in charge at Jasper
  • 1862 H. J. Moberly at Fort George

Mount Hardisty

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Alberta. Mount
Approximately 26 km south-east of Jasper
52.7047 N 117.8244 W — Map 083C12 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1912
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This mountain was named by James Hector [1834–1907] in 1859 after Richard Hardisty (1831-1889).

Hardisty was a Chief Trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company [founded 1670], in charge of Fort Charleton, Saskatchewan, in 1857-1858. He was Chief Factor in charge of the Edmonton district for many years after that. He was called to the Senate of Canada 23 February 1888, and died in Winnipeg the following year.

References:

  • Karamitsanis, Aphrodite [1961–]. Place names of Alberta. Volume 1: Mountains, Mountain Parks and Foothills. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1991. Internet Archive [accessed 25 February 2025]

James Hector

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James Hector [1834–1907]

b. 1834
d. 1907

Sir James Hector, M.D., C.M.G., K.C.M.G., (1834-1907) was appointed Surgeon and Geologist to the Palliser Expedition 1857-1860 and was sent to explore the western parts of British North America (see Introduction). Hector made many important observations regarding the geology and ethnology of the Canadian West and Rocky Mountains. He was appointed geologist to the Provincial Government of Otago, New Zealand in 1861 and Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand from 1865-1903. He returned to Canada in 1904 to visit some of his previous exploration grounds. This mountain, 3394 m in altitude, was named in 1884 by Dr. G.M. Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada, after Sir James Hector.

  • 1857-1860 Palliser expedition
  • 1859 Hector to Athabasca River, Henry House
  • —  and Spry, Irene Mary Biss [1907–1998], editor. “Hector’s Journal.” The papers of the Palliser Expedition 1857-60, (1968)
  • — and Palliser, John [1817–1887]; Spry, Irene Mary Biss [1907–1998], editor. The papers of the Palliser Expedition 1857-1860. Toronto: Publications of the Champlain Society XLIV, 1968
Also see:

Sekani Indians

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Indigenous people

This indigenous people appears on:
Palliser Map 1863 [as “Beaver and Chickanee Indians”]
James Teit’s map of Shuswap Territory 1909
Map showing the Shuswap Territory. Teit p. 450

Map showing the Shuswap Territory. Teit p. 450 [1]

Sekani or Tse’khene are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the Northern Interior of British Columbia. Their territory includes the Finlay River and Parsnip River drainages of the Athabasca River. The neighbours of the Sekani are the Babine to the west, Carrier (Dakelh) to the south, Dunneza (Beaver) to the east, and Kaska and Tahltan, to the north, all Athabaskan peoples. In addition, due to the westward spread of the Plains Cree Indians in recent centuries, their neighbours to the east now include Cree communities.

Sekani people call their language [tsekʼene] or [tθekʼene] depending on dialect, which appended with Dene (meaning people), means “people on the rocks.” Sekani is an anglicization of this term. Other forms occasionally found, especially in older sources, are Chickanee, Secunnie, Siccanie, Sikani, and the French Sékanais. [2]

Teit’s 1909 map indicates “Area at head of Fraser River, enclosed by broken double lines, temporarily occupied by the Sekanai.”

References:

  • 1. Teit, James Alexander [1864–1922]. The Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History. Volume 2, Part 7. The Shuswap. New York: Stechert, 1909. American Museum of Natural History
  • 2. Wikipedia. Sekani
Also see:

Métis

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Indigenous people

The Mountain Métis come from a mixed bloodline of Scottish, Iroquois, French and Sekani Indians. The documents provided indicate the travel routes of the main Iroquois forefathers, Louis Karakonti, Ignace Wanyandie, and Ignace Karakonti, who came out West with the fur trade during the early 1800s from primarily Kahnawake, Montreal.

They followed the customary fur trade routes, and when they reached the Athabasca River valley, the three Iroquois took wives of the Sekannaise tribe. Roaming the country, they did much of the early exploration of the Lesser and Greater Slave lakes; they have reported to have gone down the Mackenzie River and later traversed mountains and its passes. They were the guides for famous early explorers such as Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820], David Thompson [1770–1857], Milton and Cheadle, Simon Fraser [1776–1862], Hector and others. [1]

References:

Mount Hector

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Alberta. Mount
Approximately 65 km north-west of Banff on Icefields Parkway.
51.575 N 116.2594 W — Map 082N09 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1884
Name officially adopted in 1928
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
Captain John Palliser and James Hector

Captain John Palliser and James Hector


Sir James Hector at Revelstoke in 1903

Sir James Hector at Revelstoke in 1903 Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

James Hector [1834–1907], surgeon and geologist of the Palliser Expedition, explored along the Athabasca River from Fort Edmonton to Athabasca Pass in 1859.

Hector made many important observations regarding the geology and ethnology of the Canadian West and Rocky Mountains. He was appointed geologist to the Provincial Government of Otago, New Zealand in 1861 and Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand from 1865-1903. He returned to Canada in 1904 to visit some of his previous exploration grounds. This mountain was named in 1884 by George Dawson [1849–1901] of the Geological Survey of Canada.

References:

  • Hector, James [1834–1907]; Palliser, John [1817–1887]; Spry, Irene Mary Biss [1907–1998], editor. The papers of the Palliser Expedition 1857-1860. Toronto: Publications of the Champlain Society XLIV, 1968. Internet Archive [accessed 4 March 2025]
  • Karamitsanis, Aphrodite [1961–]. Place names of Alberta. Volume 1: Mountains, Mountain Parks and Foothills. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1991. Internet Archive [accessed 25 February 2025]