Author Archives: Swany

Cecilia Lake

Leave a reply
British Columbia. Lake
Just W of BC-Alberta boundary, SE of Kakwa Lake
53.9361 N 120.0219 W — Map 093H16 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1925
Official in BC – Canada
This lake appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 38 (surveyed in 1924)
Boundary Commission Sheet 39 (surveyed in 1924)

George Kilpatrick, pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Ottawa, visited this area in 1923, and suggested this name after the daughter of a friend (11 February 1957 letter from Geographic Board of Canada, file P.1.47).

Called “Surprise Lake” by Samuel Prescott Fay [1884–1971], who was in the area in 1912 and 1914; called “Greenwater Lake” by Col. Townsend Whelen, a trophy hunter who was there in 1922.

Wrote Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] during the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission survey:

The lake is a very beautiful one, of a rich deep blue colour, some two miles in length by half a mile wide. Situated in a pocket of the surrounding heights, it is so closely encircled that it is very nearly reached before being seen. In consequence it is known locally as “Surprise” Lake. The name, Cecilia Lake, was given by Mr. Lambart and as there are a number of other Surprise Lakes, it has been adopted.

The upper valley of the lake is fairly open with scattered bodies of spruce and balsam of small size. The slopes encircling the basin of the lake are densely forested. The outlet, Cecilia Creek, flows in a broad valley showing much open meadowland along the bottom and densely forested side slopes. It has a northwesterly course of some nine miles to its junction with the Kakwa River. The 120th meridian passes within an eighth of a mile of the most northerly extremity of the lake.

References:

  • Cautley, Richard William [1873–1953], and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Parts IIIA & IIIB, 1918 to 1924. From Yellowhead Pass Northerly. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1925. Whyte Museum
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Cecilia Lake
Also see:

Dalby Brooks Morkill

Leave a reply

Dalby Brooks Morkill [1880–1955]

b. 1880 — Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
d. 1955 — Vancouver, B.C., Canada

Morkill came to British Columbia in 1898. He received his commission as a British Columbia Land Surveyor in 1910. Morkill was employed in 1912 by the British Columbia government making surveys on the Fraser River between Horsey Creek and Holmes River. In 1913, with Alan S. Thompson, Morkill surveyed between the Goat River and Catfish Creek. Morkill worked on the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveys north of Yellowhead Pass in the early 1920s. Subsequently Morkill surveyed in several other areas of the Province. During his last years he spent summers at his residence at Barkerville and winters in Vancouver. He was president of the Association of BC Land Surveyors in 1928.

Sources of biographical information about Morkill:

  • Andrews, Gerald Smedley [1903–2005]. Professional Land Surveyors of British Columbia. Cumulative nominal roll. Victoria: Corporation of Land Surveyors of British Columbia, 1978
  • Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors. Annual Report (1956).
Morkill is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Morkill was involved:

  • 1912 Morkill Surveys
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Morkill was author or co-author:

  • —   “Report on Survey on the South Fork of Fraser River from Horse Creek to Beaver River. December 28, 1912.” Report of the Minister of Lands for the Province of British Columbia for the year ending 31st December 1912, (1913):238-240. Google Books
  • —   “Report on survey on south fork of the Fraser River, between Goat River and Catfish Creek. December 15, 1913.” Report of the Minister of Lands for the Province of British Columbia for the Year Ending 31st December 1913, (1914):423. Google Books

Calumet Peak

Leave a reply
Alberta. Peak
Headwaters of Calumet Creek
53.2636 N 119.0111 W — Map 083E06 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in Canada
This peak appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 31 (surveyed in 1922)
Boundary Commission Sheet 32 (surveyed in 1922 &1924)

Named in association with Calumet Creek.

In a note in the Geographical Journal, Charles Ernest Fay [1846–1923] wrote that during the 1913 Alpine Club of Canada camp at Mount Robson, Calumet was one of five virgin summits to be occupied.

References:

  • Fay, Charles Ernest [1846–1923]. “Recent Mountaineering in the Canadian Alps.” Geographical Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1916):1. JSTOR

Samuel Prescott Fay

Leave a reply

Samuel Prescott Fay [1884–1971]

b. 1884
d. 1971

“Pete” Fay as he was known to his friends had been a member of the [American Alpine] Club for 59 years at the time of his death last August [1971]. His qualifications for election in 1912 were four seasons in the Canadian Rockies beginning in 1906. In 1914 he joined a Smithsonian expedition which left Jasper, Alberta in June for the purposes of exploration, mapping and the collection of birds and mammals in the northern Rockies. Reports were filed with the Biological Survey in Washington. In mid-October the party met a trapper who showed them an old newspaper with reports of the first weeks of World War I of which they had no inkling. For the next three or four days they traveled non-stop to reach Hudson Hope on the Peace River.
Pete graduated from Harvard in 1907. During World War I he joined the American Field Service to drive an ambulance in France and later served with the Air Force in France and Belgium. Afterwards he was associated with an investment counseling firm in Boston for many years. Aside from two years on the Council (1930-1932), he did not take an active part in Club affairs, though he attended frequent meetings. Frail health confined him to his home for the last ten or more years.

Sources of biographical information about Fay:

  • Fay, Samuel Prescott [1884–1971]. The Forgotten Explorer: Samuel Prescott Fay’s 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies. Edited by Charles Helm and Mike Murtha. Victoria, B.C.: Rocky Mountain Books, 2009
  • Hall, Henry S. “Samuel Prescott Fay, 1884–1971.” American Alpine Journal, (1972) American Alpine Club
Events in the Mount Robson region in which Fay was involved:

  • 1912 SP Fay Mt. Sir Alexander
  • 1914 SP Fay Jasper to Hudsons Hope
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Fay was author or co-author:

  • —   Jasper-Yellowhead Historical Society. Album of pictures accompanying S.P. Fay journal of trip through Rockies from Yellowhead, Alberta, Pass, to Peace River at Hudsons Hope, B.C, 1914. JYHS No. 84 or 91 (1912–1914).
  • —   “Mount Alexander.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):121
  • —   “Note on Mount Alexander Mackenzie and Mount Ida.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 36 (1924):421
  • —   The Forgotten Explorer: Samuel Prescott Fay’s 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies. Edited by Charles Helm and Mike Murtha. Victoria, B.C.: Rocky Mountain Books, 2009