Revelstoke (City) / Mount Begbie / Mount Cartier / Clachnacudainn Range / Death Rapids, Dalles des Morts / Eva Lake

Phone : (250) 837-2911
Your Host(s) : Municipal Administration

Revelstoke, BC (Nearby: Big Eddy, Canyon Hot Springs, Arrowhead, Galena Bay, Craigellachie)

  • Mount  Begbie
  • Mount Cartier
  • Clachnacudainn Range

216 Mackenzie Avenue
Revelstoke, British Columbia
V0E 2S0


British Columbia Tourism Region : Kootenay Rockies

Description From Owner:
  • After Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie (1819-94), Chief Justice of British Columbia, the famous 'hanging judge' ,
  • who by firmness, impartiality, and sheer power of personality maintained British law and order when the mining camps of the Cariboo and other gold-mining areas were flooded with American riffraff, fresh from the lynch-law camps to the south.
  • The son of a colonel in the Royal Engineers, Begbie was a highly civilized man who spoke both French and Italian (he had visited Italy) and had a taste for music.
  • He received his MA from Cambridge in 1844 and in the same year was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn.
  • After some years as an impoverished young lawyer and a man-about-town in London, he decided to emigrate, possibly as a consequence of a disappointment in love.
  • In September 1858 he was appointed 'Judge in Our Colony of British Columbia.'
  • Tall (six foot four), his long black cloak swirling behind him, his eyes gleaming between the stylish rake of a gaucho hat and the carefully trimmed lines of his Van Dyke beard, Begbie was a commanding figure. He never held court unless attired in the ro
  • Inevitably he became the centre of numerous stories and legends.
  • Vacationing in Salt Lake City, he met an American who had served on a jury in the Cariboo and who remarked, 'You certainly did some hanging, judge.' To which Begbie pungently replied, 'Excuse me, my friend, I never hanged any man.
  • I simply swore in good American citizens, like yourself, as jurymen, and it was you that hanged your own fellow-countrymen.' Both Begbie and J.C. Haynes have been credited with warning the gold miners at Wild Horse Creek:
  • 'Boys, if there is any shooting at Kootenay, there will be hanging at Kootenay.' Begbie believed in flogging too. 'My idea is that if a man insists upon being like a brute, after a fair warning, & won't quit the Colony, treat him like a brute & flog him.
  • Angered by the acquittal of a holdup man, he said to the prisoner, 'The jurymen say you are not guilty, but with that I do not agree.
  • It is now my duty to set you free and I warn you not to pursue your evil ways, but if you ever again should be so inclined, I hope you select your victim from the men who have acquitted you.'
  • Begbie became Chief Justice of mainland British Columbia in 1869 and Chief Justice of all British Columbia in 1870. He was knighted in 1875. Sir Matthew died in Victoria in 1894.
  • Mount Cartier named after Sir George-Étienne Cartier (1814-73), the leading French-Canadian champion of Confederation.
  • Clachnacudainn Range - after the lozenge Clachshaped rock that for centuries was the palladium of Inverness in Scotland.
  • Clach-na-Cudainn (Stone of the Tubs) was so named since the women of the town rested their tubs on it when bringing water from the river.
  • With permission from G.P.V and Helen B. Akrigg 1997 British Columbia Place Names. UBC Press.


Address of this page: http://bc.ruralroutes.com/Revelstoke



Need driving directions? Enter your location:

Revelstoke (City) / Mount Begbie / Mount Cartier / Clachnacudainn Range / Death Rapids, Dalles des Morts / Eva Lake, Phone : (250) 837-2911

Have something to say about Revelstoke (City) / Mount Begbie / Mount Cartier / Clachnacudainn Range / Death Rapids, Dalles des Morts / Eva Lake?

Tell us, and we'll tell the world!

Your name:
Your email address:
Your phone number:
(optional)   
Your Review:

  • The old Dalles des Morts of the fur traders, one of the most dangerous stretches of the Columbia River route from Athabasca Pass. . The worst of the many disasters here occurred in 1838 when twelve people drowned, among them the young botanist Robert Wallace and his bride, a daughter of Governor Simpson of the I-IBC.



  • After Eva Hobbs, an enthusiastic member of the Revelstoke Mountaineering Club in the years before World War l.


  • During the Big Bend gold rush of 1865, some French-Canadians, former engagés of the HBC, worked this stream.


  • 1897 Map of the Big Bend Area


  • Gold River

  • As the Gold River, it was important during the Big Bend gold rush of 1865-6.


  • Holdich Creek

  • After A.H. Holdich, a graduate of the Royal School of Mines, who ran an assay office in Revelstoke around 1893.


  • Illecillewaet River

  • From the Okanagan Indian word meaning 'big water.'


  • La Forme Creek

  • After George La Forme, who was a packer in the area. About 1895 his pack train was snowed in around here, and the animals had to be shot.


  • Loop Brook

  • Named for the great double loop in the CPR track here before the construction of Connaught Tunnel.


  • Mount McGill

  • After McGill University.


  • Nakimu Caves

  • Said to be from an Indian word meaning either 'grumbling' or 'spirit sounds.' It is descriptive of the noise made by subterranean waters.


  • Revelstoke

  • The locality was first known as 'The Eddy' because of a large swirl in the river that had eroded the right bank of the Columbia here. Marcus Smith referred to The Eddy in 1872. When a route was surveyed westward for the CPR, the place became known as 'Second Crossing' since the railway, cutting across the Big Bend of the Columbia, crossed the river first near Donald and a second time here.

    In 1880 the original townsite was surveyed by A.S. Farwell, and for the next six years the settlement was known as Farwell. Having acquired the land where he expected the CPR to run its right of way, Farwell tried to make the railway pay an inflated price for it. The latter responded by laying out a new townsite on higher land to the east of Farwell's townsite and placing its station here.

    The CPR, in no mood to immortalize Farwell, named its station 'Revelstoke' in honour of the first Lord Revelstoke, head of the British banking house of Baring Brothers. This firm had bought of a CPR bond issue and so had averted the last financial crisis during the the transcontinental line. In June 1886 the post office of Farwell was renamed Revelstoke. The City of Revelstoke was incorporated in 1889.


  • Ross Peak

  • After Sir James Ross, who was superintendent of construction for the CPR.


  • Tangier River

  • After the Waverley Tangier group of mineral claims staked at its head about 1900.


  • Victor Lake

  • Probably named after Victor, one of two Indians who accompanied Walter Moberly when he was in this area in 1865.


Visitors to this page: 826     Emails sent through this page: 1     This record last updated: February 9, 2021

Nearby:
Nearby Lakes and Mountains:
  • Williamson Lake, 4km
  • Balsam Lakes, 6km
  • Heather Lake, 7km
  • Mount Revelstoke, 7km
  • Begbie Lake, 10km
  • Mount Mackenzie, 8km
  • Mount Macpherson, 10km
  • Miller Lake, 10km
  • Eva Lake, 11km
  • Mount Begbie, 13km
  • Mount Williamson, 12km
  • Tilley Lake, 14km
  • Wetask Lake, 10km
  • Upper Jade Lake, 12km
  • Scottish Lake, 12km
  • Brim Lake, 14km
  • Lower Jade Lake, 12km
  • Heart Lake, 15km
  • Revelation Lake, 15km
  • Mount Tilley, 14km
  • Surprise Lake, 15km
  • Mount Dickey, 15km
  • Turquoise Lake, 15km
  • Topowap Lake, 15km
  • English Lake, 13km
  • Mount Cartier, 14km
  • Col Lake, 17km
  • Mount Coursier, 15km
  • Clanwilliam Lake, 13km
  • Ghost Peak, 14km
  • Inverness Peaks, 15km
  • Hanner Lake, 13km
  • Mount St. Cyr, 18km
  • Echo Lake, 18km
  • Columbia Mountains, 14km
  • Davis Peak, 19km
  • Victor Lake, 15km
  • Mount English, 17km
  • Twin Butte, 15km
  • Blanket Mountain, 27km
  • Mount Klotz, 20km
  • Greenbush Lake, 26km
  • Mount Copeland, 21km
  • Armstrong Peak, 28km
  • Perry Lake, 21km
  • Three Valley Lake, 20km
  • Mount La Forme, 27km
  • Mount Llewelyn, 19km
  • Cranberry Mountain, 33km
  • Joss Lake, 26km