Category Archives: Place Names

Zillmer 1939-1948 maps of Cariboo

Sketch map of sources of Thompson, Raush and Azure rivers in the Cariboo Range, B.C.
Raymond T. Zillmer 1939

Sketch map of sources of Thompson, Raush and Azure rivers in the Cariboo Range, B.C.
Raymond T. Zillmer 1939
Canadian Alpine Journal 1939


Sketch map of McLennan River and Canoe River
By Joel Nord and Raymond T. Zillmer 1946.

Sketch map of McLennan River and Canoe River
By Joel Nord and Raymond T. Zillmer 1946.
Canadian Alpine Journal 1947


Sketch map Cariboo Range
Raymond T. Zillmer, 1947

Sketch map Cariboo Range
Raymond T. Zillmer, 1947
Canadian Alpine Journal 1948

Ray Zillmer [1887–1960 was an American attorney, mountaineer, and conservationist who made a number of explorations in the Cariboo Mountains in the 1930s and 40s.
This map includes:
North Thompson River [1947]
Blackstone Glacier [1939]
Blackstone Creek [1939]
Canvas Creek [1947]
Cedarside [1946]
Cranberry Lake [1946 Location of former lake]
Ella Frye Creek [1939]
Mount Joel [1946]
Lebher Creek [1947]
Lempriere Creek [1947]
Manteau Creek [1947]
Mount Nord [1946]
Pleasant Creek [1947]
Stormking Creek [1947]
References:

  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “Explorations in the Southern Cariboos.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 27 (1939):48-61
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The exploration of the source of the Thompson River in British Columbia.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1940):69–81. American Alpine Club
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “Exploration of the McLennan completed.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 30 (1947):85-95
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The first crossing of the Cariboo Range.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 31 (1948):26–37
  • Wikipedia. Ray Zillmer
Also see:

W. A. D. Munday’s map Cariboos 1925

Sketch map of part of the Cariboo Mountains
W.A.D. Munday

Sketch map of part of the Cariboo Mountains
W.A.D. Munday
Canadian Alpine Journal 1925

Walter Alfred Don Munday [1890–1950] made numerous explorations in the Cariboo Range.

Most of the names on this map that are still in use were proposed previous to Munday, except perhaps “Thompson Icefield,” now Thompson Glacier.” Many of the names were superseded in the Premier Range proclimation.

This map includes:
Aspiration, Mount [now Mount John Oliver]
Bivouac Peak [former name]
Cariboo Mountains
Challenger, Mount [now Mount Stanley Baldwin]
David Thompson, Mount [now Mount Sir John Thompson]
David Glacier
Gunboat Mountain [as Gunboat Ridge]
Holways Peak [now Penny Mountain]
Hostility, Mount [now Mount Mackenzie King]
Incisor Peak [former name]
Kiwa Creek
Kiwa Peak [former name]
Sand Creek [now Tête Creek]
Thompson Glacier [as Thompson Icefield]
Titian, Mount [now Mount Sir Wilfrid Laurier]
Welcome, Mount [former name]
References:

  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “In the Cariboo Range – Mt. David Thompson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 15 (1925):130-136. Alpine Club of Canada
  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “River Sources in Cariboo Mountains.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 17 (1928):76. Alpine Club of Canada
  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “The Cariboo range. Canadian pacific railway surveyors and modern climbers.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 28 (1940)
  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “Correspondence – The Cariboo Range.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1941). American Alpine Club
  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “That terrible snow-peaked range.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 31 (1948):77-80. Alpine Club of Canada

Hanington’s map Smoky River Pass 1875

Detail of map of Smoky River Pass 
Quesnelle, B. C. to Edmonton, N.W.T.
by C. F. Hanington, 1875

Detail of map of Smoky River Pass
Quesnelle, B. C. to Edmonton, N.W.T.
by C. F. Hanington, 1875
Internet Archive

“Yellowhead Pass” appears as “Yellow Head Pass.”

Charles Francis Hanington [1848–1930] accompanied Edward Worrell Jarvis [1846–1894] on a Canadian Pacific Railway survey of potential passes north of the Yellowhead. A hard trip they had of it, with dogsleds from Quesnel through the McGregor and Smoky Rivers, finding no better passes than the Yellowhead.

References:

  • Hanington, Charles Francis [1848–1930]. Journal of Mr. C.F. Hanington from Quesnelle through the Rocky Mountains, during the winter of 1874-5. 1875. Internet Archive
  • Murtha, Mike, and Helm, Charles. Through an Unknown Country. The Jarvis-Hanington Winter Expedition through the Northern Rockies, 1874-1875. Victoria, B.C.: Rocky Mountain Books, 2015
Also see:

Phillips’s map NW of Robson 1915

[Map to accompany Winter conditions north and west of Mt. Robson]
Donald Phillips, 1915

[Map to accompany Winter conditions north and west of Mt. Robson]
Donald Phillips, 1915
Canadian Alpine Journal 1915

This map accompanies Donald “Curly” Phillips’s article in the 1914-15 Canadian Alpine Journal.

Includes many unofficial names: Muddy River, Sulphur River, Ptarmigan Lake, Rockslide Creek, Sulphur Pass, No Luck Creek, Snow River, Mirror Canyon, Calumet Snowfield, Twin Tree Lake, Mt. Pamm, Rockslide Creek, Short River…

References:

  • Phillips, Donald [1884–1938]. “Winter conditions north and west of Mt. Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):128-135. Alpine Club of Canada
Also see:

Samuel Prescott Fay map Mount Alexander 1915

Region about Mt. Alexander
Samuel Prescott Fay, 1913

Region about Mt. Alexander
Samuel Prescott Fay, 1913
Canadian Alpine Journal 1915


Map of route from Jasper to Mt. Sir Alexander.
Samuel Prescott Fay

Map of route from Jasper to Mt. Sir Alexander.
Samuel Prescott Fay
Canadian Alpine Journal 1929

Samuel Prescott Fay [1884–1971]

“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.

— Hall, American Alpine Journal, (1972)

References:

  • Fay, Samuel Prescott [1884–1971]. “Mount Alexander.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):121. Alpine Club of Canada
  • Gilmour, Andrew James [1871–1941]. “Beyond Mount Robson: First Ascent of Mount Sir Alexander.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 18 (1929):22-32. Alpine Club of Canada
  • Hall, Henry S. “Samuel Prescott Fay, 1884–1971.” American Alpine Journal, (1972). American Alpine Club
  • 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

Blue Glacier

British Columbia. Former unofficial name
Other name for Berg Glacier
53.1167 N 119.1333 W GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1909 (Coleman)
Not currently an official name.
View of Blue or Tumbling Glacier from its névé on the slope of Robson Peak to where its foot enters Berg Lake, a descent of 5,000 feet. Photo: R. C. W. Lett

View of Blue or Tumbling Glacier from its névé on the slope of Robson Peak to where its foot enters Berg Lake, a descent of 5,000 feet. Photo: R. C. W. Lett
National Geographic Magazine 1913

“Blue Glacier is a wonderful stream of slipping, sheering, blue, green, and white ice. Why it does not slip and slide as a whole down into Berg Lake is one of the unsolved secrets of this great mountain,” wrote Charles Doolittle Walcott in his report on the 1912 Smithsonian expedition to Mount Robson.

“From the elevated ice-field, fed by avalanching snows from the sides of Robson, a gigantic ice cascade tumbles down rock precipices and buries its nose in the waters of Berg Lake,” wrote Arthur Oliver Wheeler after his 1911 visit. “At frequent intervals great chunks of ice break off with a report like cannon, and, bounding and rattling down the steep incline, plunge into the clear water of the lake. Dr. Coleman has named the overhanging ice-fall ‘The Blue Glacier,’ The term is not strong enough: ‘Tumbling Glacier,’ though not so euphonious, is a better name to express the activity of such a unique feature.”

References:

  • Coleman, Arthur Philemon [1852–1939]. The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Internet Archive
  • Walcott, Charles Doolittle [1850–1927]. “The monarch of the Canadian Rockies.” National Geographic Magazine, (1913):626. Internet Archive

Little Lake

British Columbia. Lake: Fraser River drainage
Expansion of Bad River (James Creek)
54.3667 N 121.5333 W — Map 93I/5 — GoogleGeoHack
Official in BC

Near the headwaters of Bad River, traversed by Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] in 1793 on his way to the Pacific coast and back.

Alhough it is shown on NTS map 093I05, the name “Little Lake” does not appear on the Canadian Geographical Names Database.

References:

  • Mackenzie, Alexander [1764–1820]. Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the years 1789 and 1793. London: T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1803. Internet Archive
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Little Lake

Tacoutche Tesse

British Columbia. : Fraser River drainage
Transliteration of Dakelh (Carrier) name for Fraser River
Map of Mackenzie’s track in 1793 (detail of pass through Rocky Mountains)

Map of Mackenzie’s track in 1793 (detail of pass through Rocky Mountains)
Internet Archive

Alexander Mackenzie travelled from his winter quarters near Finlay Forks to the Pacific coast in 1793. On his return to the east, travelling through the same unnamed pass through the Rocky Mountains that he traversed on the trip west, he wrote in his journal:

Friday, 16 August, 1793. The weather continued to be the same as yesterday, and at two in the afternoon we came to the carrying-place which leads to the first small lake; but it was so filled with drift wood, that a considerable portion of time was employed in making our way through it. We now reached the high land which separates the source of the Tacoutche Tesse, or Columbia River, and Unjigah, or Peace River: the latter of which, after receiving many tributary streams, passes through the great Slave Lake, and disembogues itself in the Frozen Ocean, in latitude 69-1/2 North, longitude 135. West from Greenwich; while the former, confined by the immense mountains that run nearly parallel with the Pacific Ocean, and keep it in a Southern course, empties itself in 46. 20. North latitude and longitude 124. West from Greenwich.

Mackenzie believed it to be the Columbia, or a major tributary thereof, and Lewis, and Clark, in 1805 the next non-Indigenous party to cross the northern part of the continent of North America, shared the assumption. Mackenzie’s coordinates are accurate for the mount of the Mackenzie River, to which the Unjigah or Peace is a tributary. His coordinates for the mouth of the Columbia River are also accurate, but he was mistaken in thinking that Tacoutche Tess was the Columbia; it is the Fraser River, neither the Columbia nor a tributary, but this was not discovered until 1807 by Simon Fraser.

References:

  • Mackenzie, Alexander [1764–1820]. Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the years 1789 and 1793. London: T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1803. Internet Archive
  • Lewis, Meriwether, and Clark, William. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Edited by Gary E. Moulton. 1803–1806. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online
  • Fraser, Simon [1776–1862]. The letters and journals of Simon Fraser, 1806-1808. Edited by W. Kaye Lamb. Toronto: MacMillan, 1960. Internet Archive
  • Morice, Adrien-Gabriel [1859–1939]. The Carrier Language (Déné Family): A Grammar and Dictionary Combined. Anthropos. St. Gabriel-Mödling near Vienna, Austria: 1932. WorldCat
  • Morice, Adrien-Gabriel [1859–1939]. The history of the Northern Interior of British Columbia (formerly New Caledonia). Toronto: William Briggs, 1904. Internet Archive
  • Wikipedia. Dalekh or Carrier