The “Overlanders” were an ad-hoc group of gold-seekers on their way from eastern Canada to join the Cariboo gold rush in British Columbia. In 1862 they travelled through the Yellowhead Pass and would have gone by this falls on the Fraser River near Mount Robson. There is no mention of “Overlander Falls” in surviving records, or any record of the use of the name prior to its official adoption by the BC Geographical Names Office in 1986, it as proposed by the BC Parks Branch.

The Overlanders travelled in loosely organized groups totalling about two hundred. At Edmonton, the lead group hired André Cardinal, a native of Jasper, to guide them to Tête Jaune Cache. At the Cache they met a camp of the native Secwépemc (Shushwap) people who were salmon fishing. The Shuswap were not familiar with the route down the Fraser River, and only familiar with the route toward the North Thompson River for a few days’ travel.

At Tête Jaune Cache the party split. All but 36 went down the Fraser, in rafts and dugout canoes. As the first group left on September 1 the Shuswaps are reported to have said, “Poor white men. No more.” Three of the men drowned in the Fraser. The rest eventually made it to Quesnel. Two of the 36 that headed for the North Thompson and Kamloops also drowned. Both groups met discouragement when they neared the goldfields, where hundreds of disillusioned miners were on their way out. All but a few of the overlanders headed for the coast without even going to the goldfields at Barkerville.

Dominion Creek earned its former name by draining the McBride yard of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

“J. T. Oakley, mixed farming,” is mentioned in the 1918 Wrigley’s Directory under McBride. John Tom Oakley was one of the first homesteaders in the valley. With his wife, son and daughter, they lived on a farm 3 km east of McBride. He was the first to use power machines, and broke his land with a steam engine. A 1936 newspaper report states that “flooding of the Fraser obliterated Horseshoe Lake and flooded Oakley Island. A hay stack and a granary building at Oakley’s floated away.”

His son Harold was president of the McBride Farmers’ Institute in 1935. A history of the Institute published in the Robson Calley Courier, January 26, 1977, recognized John Oakley among the “Many faithful workers [who] have worked for the things that the organization has done for the valley.”

The Thompson River and its North and South branches are named for explorer and geographer David Thompson [1770–1857]. The Thompson river was given its name by Simon Fraser [1776–1862].

Identified as North River in Canada Gazette, 14 October 1865. Subsequently designated North Branch of Thompson River; labelled “Thompson River, North Branch” on Pemberton’s 1871 map of British Columbia.

— BC Geographical Names

Identified as “North River” on the reduced copy of a map referred to in the 16 July 1861 dispatch of James Douglas, first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, and also in Canada Gazette, 14 October 1865. Subsequently designated “North Branch of Thompson River.” The name appears as “Thompson River North Branch” on the 1859 Arrowsmith map and as “North Branch of Thompson” on the 1871 Trutch map.

I have been unable to find the Joseph Despard Pemberton 1871 map of British Columbia.

Association with North Star Creek.

Origin of the name unknown.

One of three routes through Miette Pass. Formerly known as North Passage.

Noisier than most?

No longer without a name.