Origin of the name unknown.

Adopted in 1945 as labelled on BC map 1H, 1917, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Coordinates of mouth adjusted 3 June 1974 on 93O/3, because of flooding of Williston Lake.

Having persuaded one of the Sekanais to accompany them in the capacity of guide, Mackenzie and party reached (June 12, 1793) a lake two miles long, which was no other than the source of the Parsnip. After a portage of only 817 paces, they came to another lake, whence they entered a small stream which was to try sorely their patience, and which, for that reason, they called the “Bad River.”

— Morice 1904

Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] called this branch of the Peace River the left branch, the Finlay River being the right branch.

The name of the river comes from the abundance of cow-parsnip (Heracleum maximum) growing on its banks.” (John Macoun, quoted in the report of N. B. Gauvreau, CE, 1891). This plant is sometimes called “Indian Rhubarb” since native Americans eat the petioles or leaf-stalks.

Patterson mentions the “almost tropical growth of the giant cow parsnip from which the river gets is name.” He found this growing up to 7-feet high and says “the din of the rain on the huge leaves was like the rush of a tremendous wind”.

Founded as a trading post by Simon Fraser of the North West Company in August 1806. It was referred to simply as Stuart Lake post until 1822 when it became Fort St. James. The reason for the new name is not known.

Hudson’s Bay Company governor George Simpson, visiting here in 1828, described the post as “the capital of Western Caledonia.” It was in fact the administrative centre for the Hudson Bay Company’s department of New Caledonia. The original buildings have all disappeared, but the local people are making a commendable effort to preserve the three surviving buildings which date from the late nineteenth century.

Labelled “Fort James” on Trutch’s 1871 map, presumably a mistake.

Fort St. James Post Office was opened 1 May 1899, seems to have closed the following year then re-opened 1 May 1905.

Fort George, modern-day Prince George, was a fur trading post founded in 1807 by Simon Fraser [1776–1862] of the North West Company and named after King George III of Great Britain.

The Carrier (Dakelh) name for this place at the meeting of the Nechako and Fraser rivers is Thle-et-leh, meaning “the confluence.”

The fur-trading post Fort Astoria, built by the Pacific Fur Company at the mouth of the Columbia Riverin 1811, was renamed Fort George in 1813 when the North West Company bought out the assets of the Pacific Fur Company.

By 1892, Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor James Adams Mahood [d. 1901] had cut a trail past Indianpoint Lake on his way to Tête Jaune Cache, where he was to meet the Thompson River party of Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn [1824–1902].

A few months later the CPR chose a route far to the south and the trail fell into disuse.