Author Archives: Swany

Serenity Mountain

Alberta-BC boundary. Mountain
N side of Hooker Icefield, just inside BC-Alberta boundary
52.4011 N 118.0114 W — Map 083D08 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1921
Official in BCCanada
This mountain appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 26 (surveyed in 1920) [As “Mt. Serenity”]

Adopted 1921, as labelled on BC-Alberta boundary sheet 26, 1920.

Mount Evans

Alberta. Mount
N of Middle Whirlpool River, E of Mount Kane
52.4419 N 118.1294 W — Map 083D08 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1935
Official in Canada
Edgar Evans in 1911

Edgar Evans in 1911
Wikipedia

Named for Edgar Evans [[1876-1912], a Royal Navy petty officer and member of the “Polar Party” in Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912. A group of five men attained the Pole on 17 January 1912. Evans was the first to die on the return; he had accidentally cut his hand and the wound would not heal. The rest of the party subsequently also perished.

Three mountains in the Whirlpool River valley were named in 1913 to commemorate men lost in the expedition. See Mount Scott.

References:

Also see:

North Alnus Glacier

British Columbia. Glacier
NW ofFortress Lake
52.4333 N 118.0333 W — Map 083D08 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1965
Official in BCCanada

Name suggested by Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveyors in 1920, being the latin word for alder, thick groves of which abound on the mountain sides.

References:

Paul Kane

Paul Kane Self-portrait, 1846-1848

Paul Kane
Self-portrait, 1846-1848
Wikipedia


Jasper House East Side Rocky Mountains Paul Kane. Field sketch, November 7, 1847

Jasper House East Side Rocky Mountains
Paul Kane. Field sketch, November 7, 1847
Wikipedia


Paul Kane, “Boat Encampment,” Hudson’s Bay Company voyaguers, oil on canvas, 1849–1856

Paul Kane, “Boat Encampment,” Hudson’s Bay Company voyaguers, oil on canvas, 1849–1856
Royal Ontario Museum ROM2009_11209_41

Paul Kane
b. 3 September 1810 — Mallow, County Cork, Ireland
d. 20 February 1871 — Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Kane was an Irish-born Canadian painter, famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and other Native Americans in the Columbia Departmentof the fur trade.

A largely self-educated artist, Kane grew up in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto), and trained himself by copying European masters on a “Grand Tour” study trip through Europe. He undertook two voyages through the Canadian northwest in 1845 and from 1846 to 1848. The first trip took him from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie and back. Having secured the support of the Hudson’s Bay Company [founded 1670 – dissolved 2025], he set out on a second, much longer voyage from Toronto across the Rocky Mountains.

On October 6, 1846, Kane left Edmonton for Fort Assiniboine, where he again embarked with a canoe brigade up the Athabasca River to Jasper House, arriving on November 3. Here he joined a large horse troop bound west, but the party soon had to send the horses back to Jaspers House and continue on snowshoes, taking only the essentials with them, because Athabasca Pass was already deeply snowed in that late in the year. They crossed the pass on November 12 and three days later joined a canoe brigade that had been waiting to take them down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver (present-day Vancouver, Washington) and Fort Victoria (present day Victoria, British Columbia).

On both trips Kane sketched and painted First Nations and Métis peoples. Upon his return to Toronto, he produced more than one hundred oil paintings from these sketches. The oil paintings he completed in his studio are considered a part of the Canadian heritage, although he often embellished them considerably, departing from the accuracy of his field sketches in favour of more dramatic scenes.

Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Kane was author or co-author:

  • —   Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America. From Canada to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. London: Longman, Brown, 1859. Internet Archive [accessed 3/10/2025]
Kane is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

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

  • 1846 Kane through Athabasca Pass
References:

Mount Kane

Alberta. Mount
N of Mount Hooker
52.4319 N 118.1558 W — Map 083D08 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1935
Official in Canada
Paul Kane
Self-portrait, 1846-1848

Paul Kane
Self-portrait, 1846-1848
Wikipedia

Named for artist Paul Kane [1810–1871] by the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission.

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 – Part III – from 1918 to 1924. Atlas. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1925
  • 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
Also see:

Kane Glacier

Alberta-BC boundary. Glacier
Athabasca River and Columbia River drainages
W of Mount Hooker, drains into Middle Whirlpool River and Pacific Creek
52.3833 N 118.15 W — Map 083D08 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada

In reference to Mount Kane.

Mount Oates

Alberta-BC boundary. Mount
N of Hooker Icefield
52.4386 N 118.0344 W — Map 083D08 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1921
Official in BCCanada
Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates during the British Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1913, ca 1911

Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates during the British Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1913, ca 1911
Wikipedia

Lawrence Edward Grace “Titus” Oates [1880 – 1912] was a British army officer, and later an Antarctic explorer, who died from hypothermia during Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912. Oates walked from his tent into a blizzard on his 32nd birthday, in what is seen as an act of self-sacrifice. Oates was suffering from gangrene and frostbite, compromising his three companions’ chances of survival. According to the diary of Commander Robert Falcon Scott, CVO, [1868–1912], as Oates left the tent he said, “I am just going outside and may be some time.” The three other members of the party also perished over the next few days; Edgar Evans [1876-1912] had died previously.

Three mountains in the Whirlpool River valley were named in 1913 to commemorate men lost in the expedition. See Mount Scott.

References:

Also see: