Headwaters on Continental Divide N of Yellowhead Pass, flows E to Jasper
52.8653 N 118.0694 W — Map 083D16 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1827 (McDougall)
Name officially adopted in 1951
Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
John Arrowsmith’s map BC 1859
Milton and Cheadle’s map 1865
Trutch’s map of BC 1871
Tolmie and Dawson map Indian Tribes of BC 1884
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Frederick Talbot’s map GTP 1910
Schäffer map of visits in 1907 and 1908
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Boundary Commission Sheet 29 (surveyed in 1917)
Boundary Commission Sheet 29 B (surveyed in 1917)
Boundary Commission Sheet 30 (surveyed in 1924)
Baptiste Millette, an employee of the fur-trading North West Company, was the namesake of Roche Miette and other “Miette” place names in the vicinity.
The Miette was called “Cow Dung River” by Hudson’s Bay Company governor George Simpson [1792–1860], who crossed the Athabasca Pass in 1824:
“Our route is about due West through defiles in the Mountains; the track for Cranberry Lake takes a Northerly direction by Cow Dung River which falls into the Main Stream at Henrys House.”(1)
Fur-trader George McDougall [1788–1849] crossed the pass in 1827. His journal has been lost, but a copy of doubtful authenticity (2) reproduced in Yellowhead Pass and its People (3) states,
May First — On this day we came to the winter house of William Henry, having had nothing to eat for two days. My people were exhausted, and but for coming upon fresh snow-shoe tracks at the Miette River, which gave them courage to struggle on we might have all perished. (4)
- 1. Simpson, George [1792–1860], and Merk, Frederick [1887–1977], editor. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
- 2. Harvey, Athelstan George [1884–1950]. “The mystery of Mount Robson.” B.C. Historical Quarterly, (1937)
- 3. Valemount Historic Society. Yellowhead Pass and its People. Valemount, B.C.: 1984
- 4. McDougall, George [1788–1849]. Diary of trip from Fort St James to Fort Carlton via the Leather or Yellowhead Pass. 1827