Category Archives: Place Names

Tonquin Creek

British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows W into Fraser River, S of Yellowhead Lake
52.7406 N 118.5497 W — Map 083D10 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BCCanada

Named in association with Tonquin Pass.

Tityrn Lane

Feature type: road
Province: British Columbia
Location: Forks E off Eddy Road
Peter Tityrn and Marie McCulloch

Peter Tityrn and Marie McCulloch outside the Beanery, late 1940s (Mynio Fonds)

Peter (1886-1965) and Olympia (1892-1962) Tityrn and six children moved to McBride in 1925. Another two children were born in the valley. Peter came to Canada as a boy from the Ukraine. He started a long career on the railroad in 1902 as a track laborer in Manitoba. At Portage la Prairie in 1906, he joined the Grand Trunk Pacific, and moved west with the construction gangs. In 1914, at Fort Fraser, British Columbia, in charge of a gang of 400 men, he drove the last spike linking east with west on the north line.

The Canadian National Railroad inherited the bankrupt Grand Trunk Pacific in 1921. Tityrn served on various sections of the CNR’s Smithers division before moving to McBride, where he bought a quarter-section east of town. He continued to work for the railroad while clearing the land, with the help of sons Walter and William. He retired in 1950 and moved into McBride. Peter was a charter member of the McBride Elks and a member of the Farmers’ Institute.

Before Tityrn Road was high graded and widened, it would drift in with snow in the fall and remain that way until spring. The only way out was with horse and sleigh, or on foot. “Though we had to walk that long road to school and town, there are still many fond memories of a happy, ambitious, hard-working family who once lived at the end of this road,” recalls Rose Callaghan (nee Tityrn).

References:

  • McBride cemetery. Grave markers.
  • Personal correspondence.

Titkana Peak

Alberta-BC boundary. Peak
E of Berg Lake
53.15 N 119.0667 W — Map 83E/3 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BCCanada

This peak north-east of Mount Robson was initally named Ptarmigan Mountain by Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939]. The alplands on the west slopes are swarming with the birds according to Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945].

Because of the duplication of the name Ptarmigan, Coleman’s choice was dropped in favour of Titkana Peak. The feature is identified as “Titkana” in the 1928 edition of Place Names of Alberta, apparently the indigenous Stoney word for “bird.”

References:

  • Coleman, Arthur Philemon [1852–1939]. The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Internet Archive
  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “The Alpine Club of Canada’s expedition to Jasper Park, Yellowhead Pass and Mount Robson region, 1911.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):9-80
  • Canadian Board on Geographical Names. Place-names of Alberta. Published for the Geographic Board by the Department of the Interior. Ottawa: Department of the Interior, 1928. Hathi Trust
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Titkana Peak
Also see:

Tinsley Road

Feature type: road
Province: British Columbia
Location: Forks off Stone Road

Bill Tinsley was highways foreman at Tête Jaune Cache during the construction of the Yellowhead Highway from Avola to Jasper in 1965.

References:

  • Yellowhead Pass and its people. Valemount, B.C.: Valemount Historic Society, 1984

Tindill Creek

British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows SW into Fraser, E of Croydon
53.0653 N 119.6606 W — Map 083E04 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1953
Official in BCCanada

The Tindills moved to North Croydon in 1921.

After a year or two on the homestead, Rose Tindill suffered a collapse and was taken to a mental institution, from which she never returned.

— Haralson
References:

  • Haralson, Doris Neely. Northland Echoes. Yarrow, B.C.: Published by the author, Box 31, 1981

Thompson Glacier

British Columbia. Glacier: North Thompson River drainage
Headwaters of North Thompson River
52.6833 N 119.7 W — Map 83D/12 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1932
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BCCanada
This glacier appears on:
W. A. D. Munday’s map Cariboos 1925 [as Thompson Icefield]

Adopted 23 May 1962 on 83D, as labelled on BC map 3J, 1932, in association with the North Thompson River.

Possibly based on the 1925 map of the Cariboos by explorer Walter Alfred Don Munday [1890–1950].

References: