Mt. Robson, Grand Fork, Fraser River.
Photo: James McEvoy, 1898
Report on the geology and natural resources of the country traversed by the Yellowhead Pass
Mount Robson from the South-West, at 3,000 Feet.
Photo: Arthur Coleman, 1907
The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails
Mount Robson from the North, at 5,700 feet.
Photo: Arthur Coleman, 1907
The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails
Mount Robson from the North-East, at 7,000 feet.
Photo: Arthur Coleman, 1908
The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails
![Sunrise on Mount Robson [1908 ?]
Arthur Philemon Coleman
Watercolour over pencil on paper](/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/coleman-sunrise-mt-robson.jpg)
Sunrise on Mount Robson [1908 ?]
Arthur Philemon Coleman
Watercolour over pencil on paper
Royal Ontario Museum
Mount Robson from North West, 1908
Arthur Philemon Coleman
Watercolour over pencil on paper
Royal Ontario Museum
Mount Robson From Across Berg Lake, 1908
Arthur Philemon Coleman
Watercolour over pencil on paper
Royal Ontario Museum
First Glimpse of Mt. Robson
Mary Schäffer Warren, 1908
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Mount Robson.Mary Schäffer Warren, 1908
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Mt. Robson from mountain near Tête Jaune Cache. Photo: Mary Schäffer, 1908
(hand coloured lantern slide)
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Mount Robson. Photo: Mary Schäffer, 1908
Old Indian Trails
North-Western face of Mt. Robson from upper plateau of the Grand Forks.
Photo: A. L. Mumm, 1909
Canadian Alpine Journal 1910
Mt. Robson, from the North.
Photo: Dr. J. Norman Collie, 1910
Alpine Journal 1912
The most majestic of Canadian Mountains.
Mount Robson, 13,700 feet high, the loftiest peak in the Canadian Rockies, viewed from the Grand Fork. 1910.
F.A. Talbot, New Garden of Canada, 1911
The winter camp of L. J. Cole (resident engineer) and family during Grand Trunk Pacific Railway construction, about 1910.
Exploration Place
Robson Glacier, Robson Pass and Berg Lake from Mumm Peak showing northwest face of Mt. Robson. Photo: Arthur 0. Wheeler, 1911
Canadian Alpine Journal 1912
Mt Robson and Berg Lake.
Photo: Byron Harmon, 1911
Canadian Alpine Journal 1912
Mt. Robson, Lake Kinney and Valley of Grand Fork. Showing West and Southwest Faces of Mt. Robson. Photo: A. 0. Wheeler, 1911
Canadian Alpine Journal 1912
Billings Butte – Robson Peak – Iyatunga Mountain. Panonamic view of the Robson massif and adjoining mountains, with the great Hunga glacier in the foreground.
Photo: Charles D. Walcott, 1912
National Geographic Magazine 1913
Train derailment on the main line west near Mile 13 during construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Circa 1912.
Exploration Place — Fraser Fort George Regional Museum
Mount Robson, B.C. from two miles below
William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada
Northeast Face, Mt. Robson-12,972 feet altitude. Aerial photograph by H. F. Lambart, 1922
Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Part III. 1925.
Mount Robson (12,.972 feet). The Monarch of the Canadian Rockies. A. Y. Jackson, 1927
Jasper National Park, Canadian National Railways
Map Showing Yellowhead Pass Route From Edmonton To Tête-Jaune Cache.
James McEvoy, 1900. (Detail of Yellowhead Pass to Tête Jaune Cache)
Natural Resources Canada
Mt. Robson Region map by A. P. Coleman, 1911
The Canadian Rockies : new and old trails, p. 264
Topographical Map Showing Mount Robson and Mountains of the Continental Divide North of Yellowhead Pass.
Arthur O. Wheeler, 1912
Victoria Library, University of Toronto
The first European explorers travelling through the Forks were Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] in 1793 and Simon Fraser [1776–1862] in 1805.
Aboriginal trails laced the valleys for thousands of years. With the Klondike Gold Rush, the Canadian government sought to identify safe overland routes for prospectors to reach the Yukon from Edmonton. As water transport could be expensive, these were intended as wagon trails. The initial NWMP Trail, surveyed during 1897–98 by Inspector J.D. Moodie with First Nations guides, passed along the northeast bank of the Forks. Hordes coming from the south would join the trail here. Prospectors also passed through the vicinity on their way to gold rushes at Barkerville (1860s), Omineca (1871–72), and McConnell Creek (1907–08).
Origin of the name unknown, but one can guess.
The Fraser has proved to be invaluable to the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, despite the fact that so many lives and so much property have been lost in its waters. These accidents have happened mostly through carelessness and ignorance. The chief obstacles to navigation are due to the existence of shifting sand and gravel bars, the Goat Rapids, the Grand Canyon, and the Giscome Rapids, all above Fort George. High water minimizes this danger for the larger craft, but presents sometimes greater dangers for the smaller ones.
— Walker
James Monroe Thorington [1895–1989] visited the area in 1924 with guide Conrad Kain [1883–1934]:
The headwaters of Astoria River are derived in part from Chrome Lake, into which flow rushing streams from the Eremite and Fraser Glaciers; but a somewhat larger creek rises in the Amethyst Lakes, two lovely bodies of water closely connected with one another and lying close below the stupendous east wall of the Ramparts….
Hurrying up some rising grassy slopes we were soon among the enormous morainal blocks below the glacier, and in a few minutes had rounded a tiny blue marginal lake to the ice itself. Past a corner of Outpost the circle of little peaks bounding Eremite Glacier presented themselves in snowy line. Eastward we looked down upon the curious yellow brilliancy of Chrome Lake, and into the Astoria Valley where Mount Edith Cavell raises a shaly, snowless gable to a sharp point wholly unlike the great white face one sees from Jasper.
The area was the site of the Alpine Club of Canada’s Eremite Valley Camp in 1934.
The descriptive name for this mountain was applied in 1916 by surveyor Morrison Parsons Bridgland [1878–1948]. The remote position of this mountain reminds one of an eremite, a hermit. The other features take their names from this mountain.
Proximity to Eremite Mountain.
Proximity to Eremite Mountain.