| |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Proactive disclosure Print version   | |  Geographical Names of British Columbia
The City of Vancouver is named after the famous British navigator,Captain George Vancouver, R.N., who in 1792 named and explored Burrard Inlet, on whose shore the city stands. Born of Dutch stock in the little Norfolk town of King's Lynn on 22 June1757, George Vancouver entered the navy in 1771. In the following year she sailed with the great Captain Cook on the latter's second and third voyages of exploration. In April 1792 Vancouver arrived off the shores of what was to become British Columbia. Sailing through the Strait of Juan de Fuca [sic], he began that detailed survey of the coast which was to occupy him until his departure for England late in 1794. Much of this work was done in small open boats operating at very considerable distance from Vancouver's ship H.M.S. Discovery and her tender the Chatham. Back in England in 1795, Captain Vancouver (who had been promoted to that rank during his absence) devoted himself to preparing for publication an account of his great expedition. He had just about completed reading the proofs when he died on 10 May 1798. His Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and round the World was published later that same year. Source: Akrigg, G.P.V. and Helen B. (1986): British ColumbiaPlace Names, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, pp. 316-317. Related Sites: The fur traders and trappers of the early nineteenth century called theplace L'Anse au Sable (Sandy Cove). The name Kelowna (originally pronounced so that the second syllable rhymed with "allow") entails a curious story. In 1862 one August Gillardpre-empted here. For his abode he had a strange dwelling, half shanty and half underground Indian "keekwillee". Gillard was a great hairy man and one day, when he crawled out of his dugout, some passing Indians, seeing the resemblance to a bear coming out of its den, laughing cried out,"kemxtús" (anglicized as "Kimach Touche" and meaning "black bear's face"). This became the local name for Gillard and his residence. In 1892 when Bernard Lequime was having John Coryell, C.E., lay out the town site, the question arose as to the name for the new settlement. The old story of Kimach Touche was recalled, but this name seemed too uncouth. Then someone came up with the bright idea of substituting Kelowna, from the Okanagan Indian word meaning "female grizzly bear", and Kelowna it became. Source: Akrigg, G.P.V. and Helen B. (1986): British ColumbiaPlace Names, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, p.152. Related Sites: J.C. Maclure, who chose the original townsite, is sometimes said to havenamed the town after Abbotsford, the baronial mansion with Sir Walter Scott built with the profits from his novels. In a letter of 1924,however, Maclure declared that when the town was laid out in 1889 henamed it after Harry Abbott, General Superintendent of the Pacific Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Abbott, in his day a great manin the province, was a brother of Sir John Abbott, Prime Minister of Canada, 1891-92. Source: Akrigg, G.P.V. and Helen B. (1986): British ColumbiaPlace Names, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, p. 1. Related Sites: In July 1791 José Maria Narvaez, commanding the schoonerSaturnina, explored here and named the waterways in the area Bocade Winthuysen, in honour of Francisco Xavier de Winthuysen, a Spanish naval officer. When the H.B.C. established a settlement in 1852 to work the coal deposits, it was named Colvile Town, after Andrew Colvile, then governor of the H.B.C. The Indians in this area were known as "Sne-ny-mo", meaning the "people of many names", referring to the confederation that various villages in the area had formed for their better protection. From this Island Halkomelem word comes from Nanaimo. Winthuysen Inlet had disappeared as a name in the 1850s, and by 1858 Colvile Town had become simply Nanaimo. Source: Akrigg, G.P.V. and Helen B. (1986): British ColumbiaPlace Names, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, p. 209. Related Sites:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
