Twins Arthur John Cochrane [1891-1941] and Thomas Walter Cochrane [1891-1967] arrived in the area in 1911 to work on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway around McBride. The brothers homesteaded in the Robson valley, and worked with Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] and Roy Frederick Hargreaves [1891–1971] at Mount Robson and Berg Lake, respectively. (Biography supplied by daughter-in-law Ishbel Cochrane).

Informal name used by mountaineers to refer to the range at the head of the McLennan River, also called the Cariboo Range (of the Cariboo Mountains). Neither “Cariboo Range” nor “McLennan Range” are official names.

Quoting an article in the October 31, 1861, British Colonist about Alfred C. Perry, Munday wrote, “This may be the earliest record of exploration in what is now officially the McLennan Range, but as all early references are to the Cariboo Range that term will be used here.”

Thorington wrote, “Cariboo Range. This range is now officially the McLennan Range. The first crossing was made in 1947 by R. T. Zillmer and his son, from Tête Creek to Canoe River, thence to the N. Thompson and out to Gosnell.”

Zillmer responded that there was no official change of the Cariboo Range to the McLennan Range, a name he used for “that higher portion of the Cariboo Range which is E. of the Raush River and the headwaters of the Azure River, and E. and N. of the North Thompson River.”

Ray Zillmer [1887–1960] wrote of his exploration of the source of the North Thompson River:

It was my purpose [in 1939] to travel up the Thompson Valley to its source, explore its source, determine its relation to the Raush, and cross the range, if possible, going out by way of the Canoe River.…

We had two other alternatives. One was to climb the moun­tain E. of where we then stood, by following a ridge alongside and S. of a creek that came into the Thompson a little N. of us, named Blackstone Creek by Miss Frye. Above timberline we would get to a large icefield which fed this creek and which we called Blackstone Glacier.

Ella Frye was a trapper on the North Thompson for many years.

“Nearly midway between Bess Pass and Robson Pass is a pass of the watershed which is locally known as Wolverine Pass,” wrote boundary surveyor Arthur Wheeler [1860-1945 ]. The pass had been named by Donald Phillips [1884–1938]. “There is another Wolverine Pass in a more southerly part of the Canadian Rockies, so the pass under discussion is here referred to as Carcajou Pass, a synonym for Wolverine.”

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Wikipedia

Named in 2006 after the Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000), Canada’s 15th Prime Minister, 1968-79 and 1980-84.

Upon Trudeau’s death, then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien floated the idea of renaming Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak, for Trudeau; when this met with resistance, this formerly unnamed peak was given the designation on June 10, 2006, in a ceremony held at Valemount and attended by Trudeau’s eldest son, Justin.

Elsewhere in the Premier Range, mountains 10,000 feet or higher have been named for former Prime Ministers; this particular mountain, while only 8661 feet elevation, is the most prominent feature on the near horizon overlooking Valemount, is accessible from the Yellowhead Highway, and offers climbing and exploring opportunities for outdoors enthusiasts.

“The stream here called McLennan River, its real source, is also known as Mica Creek,” wrote Walter Alfred Don Munday [1890–1950] in 1925.

Map of the Cariboo Mining District to illustrate the report of Amos Bowman
Cariboo Gold Rush

This former name for the Cariboo Mountains originally included all of that range, but early mountaineers restricted “Cariboo Range” to “that higher portion of the Cariboo Range which is E. of the Raush River and the headwaters of the Azure River, and E. and N. of the North Thompson River” (Zillmer 1944).

Amos Bowman’s 1887 map of the Cariboo Mining District labelled these mountains as “Cariboo Range,” but the name “Cariboo Mountains” was instead officially adopted in 1918. Neither “Cariboo Range” (nor “McLennan Range”) are official names.

Both Munday (1948) and Thorington (1949) state that “[the Cariboo range] is now officially the McLennan Range,” referring to the restricted area along the headwaters of the McLennan River. Zillmer (1950) contradicted that with reference to communications with the Canadian Board on Geographical Names and Chief Cartographer of British Columbia.

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.