Flows SW into Fraser River near Loos
53.6 N 120.7 W — Map 93H/10 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1915
Name officially adopted in 1925
Official in BC – Canada
Phillips’s map NW of Robson 1915
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919 [as Morkill (Little Smoky)]
Boundary Commission Sheet 36 (surveyed in 1923)
Boundary Commission Sheet 37 (surveyed in 1923 & 1924)
The name was adopted in 1925 to recognize surveyor Dalby Brooks Morkill [1880–1955].
Morkill was born in Sherbrooke, Québec, and came to British Columbia in 1898. He received his commission as a British Columbia Land Surveyor in 1910. Morkill was employed in 1912 by the British Columbia government making surveys on the Fraser River between Horsey Creek and Holmes River. In 1913, with Alan S. Thompson, Morkill surveyed between Goat River and Catfish Creek.
Morkill worked on the Alberta-British Columbia Boundary Commission surveys north of Yellowhead Pass in the early 1920s. Subsequently Morkill surveyed in several other areas of the Province. During his last years he spent summers at his residence at Barkerville and winters in Vancouver.
The Morkill River is known locally as the Smoky River, a name that dates back to at least 1909. (There is also a Smoky River in Alberta, headwaters at Robson Pass.)
- 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
- Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors. Annual Report (1956)., 1956
- Robson Valley Courier. Weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Press of Jasper from 1968–88 (1968–1988).
- Andrews, Gerald Smedley [1903–2005]. Métis outpost. Memoirs of the first schoolmaster at the Métis settlement of Kelly Lake, B.C. 1923-1925. Victoria: G.S. Andrews, 1985. Internet Archive
- Akrigg, Helen B., and Akrigg, George Philip Vernon [1913–2001]. British Columbia Place Names. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997. Internet Archive
- British Columbia Geographical Names. Morkill River