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3367 - 12th Street |
British Columbia Tourism Region : Northern BC
Description From Owner:
Morice River
- Houston - In 1910, as a result of a newspaper contest for a suitable name, this settlement was named after John Houston, the first newspaperman in Prince Rupert.
- Earlier Houston had been the first mayor of Nelson, where he had edited the Tribune. He was a man with a rather dubious reputation.
- Morice River - Named after Father Adrien Gabriel Morice, OMI (1859-1938). For twenty years, 1883-1904, amid his missionary endeavours, Father Morice systematically explored north-central British Columbia.
- Working with only a watch, a telemeter, a compass, a mountain barometer, and a sounding line, he produced the first real map of the area.
- Controversy exists as to whether Victoria deliberately suppressed Morice's names for the lakes, rivers, and mountains first discovered by him, or if he supplied his information only after government surveys had established a different set of names.
- Certainly the relationship between the peppery French priest and the stolid civil servants in Victoria was not a happy one. Among Father Morice's books, mention must be made of his History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia.
- MORICE LAKE and MORICETOWN are also named after Father Morice.
- 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/Houston