Have something to say about Dawsons Landing / Cape Caution / Chic Chic Lake / Chuckwalla River / Darby Channel / Draney Inlet / Fitz Hugh Sound?

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After Robert Draney, who in 1876 built the Aberdeen Cannery on the Skeena, in 1882 the Rivers Inlet Cannery, and in 1893 a large cannery at Namu.

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The name of this well-known fishing area comes from a Heiltsuk Indian word said to mean 'wide passage.'

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From the Oowekyala Indian word meaning 'long river' as opposed to nearby Chuckwalla River, meaning 'short river.'

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From a Heiltsuk Indian word possibly meaning 'sitting on the water.'


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From an Oowekyala Indian word perhaps meaning 'with fog patches.'

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Commemorates the first Japanese settler in Canada. Nagano arrived in New Westminster in 1877 and earned his living as a salmon fisherman.

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This name (the Indian name for Safety Cove, into which the creek empties) is derived from a Heiltsuk word meaning 'fairly deep bay.'

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Takes its name from the Indian band who live nearby. Several meanings have been advanced for this word. An early one was 'portage makers' or 'those who carry on the back,' referring to the Indians making the portage between Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake. A more recent translation is 'right-minded people' or 'people talking right.'

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After Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867-1935), perhaps British Columbia's most distinguished architect. He designed the Parliament Buildings in Victoria (18937) and the Empress Hotel there, also the old courthouse in Vancouver (now the Vancouver Art Gallery). After his retirement, he lived in Bournemouth, England, where he was murdered by his chauffeur, who had become his wife's lover.

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Named by Captain Vancouver after George Pitt, first Baron Rivers (1721-1803), a writer and politician, chiefly famous for the beauty of his wife, Penelope. Horace Walpole described Lady Rivers as 'all loveliness within and without' and Lord Rivers as 'her brutal and half-mad husband.'

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From an Oowekyala Indian word meaning 'taken or taking down [from heaven or sky].' The name is appropriate since this river takes its rise from a large icefield.

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'Smith's Inlet' was named in 1786 by Captain James Hanna of the Sea Otter, who unfortunately has left us no information as to Smith's identity.

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After Captain John T. Walbran (18481913) of the Canadian Marine and Fisheries Service, for many years skipper of the dominion government steamship Quadra. His official duties with the Quadra took him to every part of the BC coast.

A well-educated man (he had attended Ripon Grammar School in Yorkshire), Walbran became fascinated by the names of the places his ship visited. Using extensive historical research, as well as personal correspondence and interviews with those who had firsthand information, he prepared his British Columbia Coast Names, published in 1909. That work must be mentioned with respect and affection by anyone interested in our BC place names. Walbran's notes were unfortunately destroyed after his death.

Readers wishing a more extended account of Walbran and his achievements should see the introduction, by G.P.V. Akrigg, prefixed to the 1971 reprint of Walbran's book.

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Derived from an Oowekyala Indian word sometimes mistranslated as 'poison river,' though it literally means 'river spirit.'