Category Archives: Place

Small Creek

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British Columbia. Creek: Fraser River drainage
Flows S into Fraser River, E of Croydon
53.05 N 119.6333 W — Map 83E/4 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1871 (Trutch)
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada
This creek appears on:
Trutch’s map of BC 1871
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Jobe’s map Jarvis Pass to Yellowhead 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919

In 1909 Stanley Washburn [1878–1950] said that Small River was one of the names “given by the trappers.”

Edward Willet Dorland Holway [1853–1923], an American banker and mycologist, approached the creek from its headwaters in 1915:

At the head of Horse Creek is a great glacier with several peaks about 10,500 feet, and between Horse Creek and Small River, on a branch of which we now were, is a very fine glacier-covered mountain around 10,500 feet.…
We followed Small River to a cabin on the Fraser, where we found flour and potatoes, crossed in the morning to an old construction camp, where there were just spikes enough to build a small raft, upon which we piled our things and floated down to Croydon, where we had left our trunks.

References:

  • Washburn, Stanley [1878–1950]. Trails, Trappers and Tenderfeet in the New Empire of Western Canada. New York and London: Henry Holt, Andrew Melrose, 1912. Hathi Trust
  • Holway, Edward Willet Dorland [1853–1923]. “First ascent of Mt. Edith Cavell and explorations in the Mt. Longstaff Region.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 7 (1916):51-53

Sleeper Mountain

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British Columbia. Mountain
S of Fraser River, between Sleeper Creek and Ghita Creek
52.8425 N 118.7669 W — Map 083D15 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1980
Official in BC – Canada

“[A] name already in local use, referring to a sleeper fire which burned part of the area some years ago…” (memo from BC Parks, file C.1.62)

References:

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Simon Peak

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Alberta-BC boundary. Peak
S of headwaters Geikie Creek
52.65 N 118.3167 W — Map 83D/9 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1951
Official in BC – Canada
This peak appears on:
Boundary Commission Sheet 28 (surveyed in 1921)

Named for Simon Fraser [1776–1862] by the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission in 1921.

References:

  • Cautley, Richard William [1873–1953], and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission appointed to delimit the boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Part II. 1917 to 1921. From Kicking Horse Pass to Yellowhead Pass.. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1924. Whyte Museum
  • Cautley, Richard William [1873–1953], and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Parts IIIA & IIIB, 1918 to 1924. From Yellowhead Pass Northerly. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1925. Whyte Museum
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Shuswap River

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British Columbia. Former name: Fraser River drainage
Former name for Raush River
53.2 N 120 W Google — GeoHack
Not currently an official name.
This former name appears on:
Trutch’s map of BC 1871 [as “Rau’ Shuswap”]
BC Lands Central BC 1892 [as “Rau Shuswap R.”]
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
The river now known as the Raush River appears as “Rau’ Shuswap” on Trutch’s map of BC from 1871 and as “Big Shuswap R.” on the 1912 map of John Norman Collie [1859–1942]. Shuswap (Secwépemc) people lived in the area when Europeans showed up.

In 1863 Milton and Cheadle encountered Shuswap people at Jasper House and Tête Jaune Cache. “The Shushwaps of Jasper House formerly numbered about thirty families, but are now reduced to as many individuals,” they wrote. [1]

The Texqakallt band of the upper North Thompson River were the earliest known inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Fraser River. They were almost completely nomadic. Lodges and fish drying racks were constructed in prime salmon fishing territory at the confluence of the McLennan River and Fraser Rivers in the vicinity of what is now Tête Jaune Cache. As well as salmon from the Fraser, trout were reportedly taken from Yellowhead Lake. They hunted bighorn sheep, mountain goats, moose, marmots, and other small mammals and birds. They also relied on edible plants in the area, especially berries.[2]

References:

  • 1. Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865, p. 240. Internet Archive
  • 2. Wikipedia. Texqakallt
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Shovar Road

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British Columbia. Road
Forks N off Museum Road
53.3189 N 120.1853 W Google — GeoHack
Roads are not in the official geographical names databases

Bill Shovar (1882-) came to Canada from Ohio in 1905 and worked on bridge construction as the railways pushed westward. He was in Edmonton ahead of the steel and worked on the bridges at Fort Saskatchewan and over the Athabasca River in 1912. He married Elizabeth (ca. 1899-1986) in Edmonton in 1913. Elizabeth was born in Newfoundland and came west in 1912.

In 1914 Bill joined the railway as a conductor in Jasper. In 1934 they moved to a farm near McBride. In 1947 Shovar retired from his job as conductor. He was a Mason and was active in the Farmers’ Institute.

Lloyd Shovar assisted in the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Survey north of Yellowhead Pass in 1922. Relationship unknown.

References:

  • Valley Echo. Weekly newspaper published in McBride. 1957–1962
  • Sherwood, Jay. Surveying the 120th Meridian and the Great Divide: The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1918–1924. Qualicum Beach, BC: Caitlin Press, 2019

Shere (railway point)

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British Columbia. Railway point
Canadian National Railway, between Small Creek and Spittal Creek
53.0333 N 119.5833 W — Map 83E/4 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BC – Canada
56 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 30 in Tete Jaune Subdivision (Red Pass to McBride as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1913
This railway point appears on:
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway map [ca. 1912]
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway timetable 1914
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway map ca. 1918
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway map 1919
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919
Canadian National Railway map 1925
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway stations

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Shere (Mile 56) was named for a construction engineer.

SHERE: a flag station on the G. T. P. Railway, 7 miles east of Croydon, and 6 west of Tete Jaune Cache. Nearest telegraph office of G. T. P. is at Tete Jaune Cache. Population, 3 families. Local resources: Farming and mica-mining. Address mail Shere, via Tete Jaune Cache.
Goodell G trapping
Goodell L E trapping
McMillan Robert ranching
McNalley J section foreman

— Wrigley’s 1918

Wrigley’s also as another entry under Shere:

Shere.
Esswein, Philip, Swift Creek
Esswein, W. B., Swift Creek
Faurnier, Benj , Swift Creek
Hawkins, J. W., Swift Creek
Wilson, Arthur, Swift Creek
Gibson, H , Syringa Creek

The Shere post office was open from 1923 to 1944 with J. A. McDougall [b. 1894] as postmaster. Less than ten examples of the cancellation mark are known in collections.

References:

  • Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Main Line Between Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Prince George. Table 5 — Tête Jaune to Prince George. 1914
  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive
  • Robson Valley Courier. Weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Press of Jasper from 1968–88 (1968–1988).
  • Topping, William. A checklist of British Columbia post offices. Vancouver: published by the author, 7430 Angus Drive, 1983
  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Bohi, Charles W., and Kozma, Leslie S. Canadian National’s Western Stations. Don Mills, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002
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