Category Archives: Place

Meadow Creek

Alberta. Creek: Athabasca River drainage
Flows N into Miette River
52.8672 N 118.2492 W — Map 083D16 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1978
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names

The name was “suggested by the Topographical Survey due to its proximity to the Meadows Fire Ranger Station” — the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveyors.

References:

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

Sandford Fleming

Sir Sandford Fleming FRSC KCMG (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, and use of the 24-hour clock as key elements to communicating the accurate time, all of which influenced the creation of Coordinated Universal Time.[1] He designed Canada’s first postage stamp, produced a great deal of work in the fields of land surveying and map making, engineered much of the Intercolonial Railway and the first several hundred kilometers of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada and founder of the Canadian Institute (a science organization in Toronto).

By 1871, the strategy of a railway connection was being used to bring British Columbia into federation and Fleming was offered the chief engineer post on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although he hesitated because of the amount of work he had, in 1872 he set off with a small party to survey the route, particularly through the Rocky Mountains, finding a practicable route through the Yellowhead Pass. One of his companions, George Monro Grant wrote an account of the trip, which became a best-seller.[9] In June 1880, Fleming was dismissed by Sir Charles Tupper, with a $30,000 payoff.[8][10] It was the hardest blow of Fleming’s life, though he obtained a promise of monopoly, later revoked, on his next project, a trans-pacific telegraph cable.[8] Nevertheless, in 1884 he became a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway and was present as the last spike was driven.

References:

Mary Jobe

Mary Jobe posed in winter amoungst trees in beaded buckskin clothing. n.d.

Mary Jobe posed in winter amoungst trees in beaded buckskin clothing. n.d.
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Mary Lenore Jobe Akeley [1878–1966]

b. 1878 — Tappan, Ohio, USA
d. 1966 — Mystic, Connecticut, USA

Jobe Akeley was an American explorer, author, mountaineer, and photographer. She undertook expeditions in the Canadian Rockies and in the Belgian Congo. She worked at the American Museum of Natural History creating exhibits featuring taxidermy animals in realistic natural settings. She worked on behalf of conservation efforts, including being one of the first advocates for the creation of game preserves. She also founded Camp Mystic, an outdoor camp for girls.

Jobe Akeley explored the Mount Sir Alexander area in 1914 and 1915, on expeditions guided by Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] of Jasper.

In 1924, Mary Jobe became the second wife of Carl Akeley (1864–1926), an explorer, natural scientist, sculptor, inventor, and “father of modern taxidermy”. On their first visit to Africa in 1926, Akeley died of disease in the remote mountains of the Congo. Jobe remained to take charge of his work, collecting specimens, and when she returned to the United Stated in 1927 she succeeded her husband as advisor in the development of the African Hall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the same year, King Albert of Belgium awarded her with the Cross of the Knight, Order of the Crown, in recognition of her courage and service.

She revisited the Congo in 1946 to study the development of the parks system. Between her travels she lectured and wrote several books on her African experiences. She died in 1966, never returning to the mountains of western Canada.

Sources of biographical information about Jobe Akeley:

  • Smith, Cyndi. Off the Beaten Track. Women adventurers and mountaineers in western Canada. Jasper: Coyote Books, 1989
  • Taylor, William C. Tracks across my trail. Donald “Curly” Phillips, guide and outfitter. Jasper: Jasper-Yellowhead Historical Society, 1984
  • Wikipedia. Mary Jobe Akeley
Jobe Akeley is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Jobe Akeley was involved:

  • 1914 Jobe-Phillips expedition Mt. Kitchi
  • 1915 Jobe-Phillips to Kitchi
  • 1915 Jobe’s second expedition to Mount Sir Alexander (leader)
  • 1917 Jobe trip to Wapiti
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Jobe Akeley was author or co-author:

  • —   “The expedition to ‘Mt. Kitchi:’ A new peak in the Canadian Rockies.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):135-143
  • —   “Mt. Kitchi: A New Peak in the Canadian Rockies.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Volume 47, No. 7 (1915):481-497. JSTOR
  • —   “Mt. Alexander Mackenzie.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 7 (1916):62–73
  • —   “A winter journey to Mt. Sir Alexander and the Wapiti.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 9 (1918):58-65

Fort Chipewyan

Alberta. Hamlet
Hamlet on western tip of Lake Athabasca
58.7144 N 111.1583 W — Map 074L11 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1954
Official in Canada

Mackenzie left Fort Fork on 9 May 1793, following the route of the Peace River.[15] He crossed the Great Divide and found the upper reaches of the Fraser River, but was warned by the local natives that the Fraser Canyon to the south was unnavigable and populated by belligerent tribes.[16] He was instead directed to follow a grease trail by ascending the West Road River, crossing over the Coast Mountains and descending the Bella Coola River to the sea. He followed this advice and reached the Pacific coast on 20 July 1793, at Bella Coola, British Columbia, on North Bentinck Arm, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean.[17] Having done this, he had completed the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, 12 years before Lewis and Clark. He had unknowingly missed meeting George Vancouver at Bella Coola by 48 days.[citation needed]
He had wanted to continue westward out of a desire to reach the open ocean, but was stopped by the hostility of the Heiltsuk people.[18] Hemmed in by Heiltsuk war canoes, he wrote a message on a rock near the water’s edge of Dean Channel, using a reddish paint made of vermilion and bear grease, and turned back east. The inscription read: “Alex MacKenzie / from Canada / by land / 22d July 1793” (at the time the name Canada was an informal term for the former French territory in what is now southern Quebec and Ontario).[19]: 418  The words were later inscribed permanently by surveyors. The site is now Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park and is designated First Crossing of North America National Historic Site.[20] In 2016, Mackenzie was named a National Historic Person.[21]

References:

Jasper National Park

Alberta. National Park
52.9833 N 118.1 W — Map 083D16 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 2001
Official in Canada
This national park appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 29 A (surveyed in 1917) [as “Jasper Park”]

Extending over 11,000 square kilometres, Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies and part of UNESCO’s Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.
References:

Also see: