Clearwater (District) / Dawson Falls / Dutch Lake / Foghorn Mountain / Helmcken Falls / Hemp Creek / Montigny Creek

Phone : (250) 674-2257
Your Host(s) : Municipal Administration

Clearwater, BC (Nearby: Blackpool, Birch Island, Little Fort, Vavenby, Chu Chua)

  • Dawson Falls
  • Dutch Lake
  • Foghorn Mountain
  • Helmcken Falls
  • Hemp Creek
  • Montigny Creek
  • Montigny Creek
  • Group of POWs working for the Swanson Lumber Co. near Clearwater, Winter 1945-1946.

209 Dutch Lake Road
Clearwater, British Columbia
V0E 1N0


British Columbia Tourism Region : Thompson Okanagan

Description From Owner:
  • Dawson Falls after George Herbert Dawson, Surveyor-General of British Columbia 1912-17.
  • Dutch Lake - 'Dutch' is a corrupted form of 'Deutsch' and refers to an early German settler.
  • Foghorn Mountain - 'Foghorn' seems to have been a popular name for mineral claims there were Foghorn claims here, near Greenwood,
  • and near Ymir, and this fact casts doubt on the picturesque local story about a foghorn being used to help sheepherders lost in the mountain mists.
  • Helmcken Falls - After Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken (1825-1920), who arrived in Victoria from England in 1850. After a dangerous and arduous assignment to Fort Rupert, he returned to Victoria, where in 1852 he married Cecilia, daughter of Governor Douglas
  • Helmcken took an active part in the political life of the young colony as a staunch supporter of his father-in-law. He was a member of the first Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island in 1855, of which he subsequently served as Speaker.
  • After first opposing BC's entry into the Canadian confederation, Dr. Helmcken came around to support it, and he was offered, but declined, a seat in the federal senate. He preferred to devote himself to his family and his medical practice.
  • In his memoirs Eric Duncan recalls the shack in the middle of a thoroughfare where 'rough but kindly Dr. Helmcken had his office and surgery, a queer place, crammed with old copies of Blackwood's Magazine. '
  • After R.H. Lee, BCLS, discovered these magnificent falls in 1913, he wrote to Premier McBride asking his permission to name them McBride Falls in his honour.
  • McBride suggested that Lee 'call the falls you mention after the venerable J.S. Helmcken, whose name I believe has not been connected with anything on the mainland
  • and who desires to have his name preserved in the geography of British Columbia for which he has done so much' (quoted in R. Neave, Wells Gray Park, pp. 52-3).
  • Hemp Creek - Formerly Little Clearwater River, but now named for Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabinum L.) , out of the stems of which the Indians wove rope and fishing lines.
  • Since Indian hemp does not grow here, the name probably derives from a misidentification of the look-alike spreading dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium L.)
  • Montigny Creek - After Montaigné, a Beaver Indian chief who perished with many of his followers in the flu epidemic of 1919.
  • 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/DawsonFalls



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Clearwater (District) / Dawson Falls / Dutch Lake / Foghorn Mountain / Helmcken Falls / Hemp Creek / Montigny Creek, Phone : (250) 674-2257

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  • Raft River

  • Possibly the Overlanders of 1862 had raft trouble here, but the name may date from the 1870s, when the CPR had a base here for its survey parties.


  • Sheila Lake

  • Those who seek the austere beauty of the high country will find near timberline south of Trophy Mountain a metal plaque declaring that the lake below is named after Mrs. Sheila Leonard (1939-77). She so loved the country that after she died from cancer her ashes were scattered here.


  • Spahats Creek

  • Spahats is the Thompson Indian word for 'black bear.'


  • Trophy Mountain

  • Dan case, a big-game guide who took parties in here, used to advertise that he went into the 'Trophy Area' that is, where hunters found trophy-sized animals. Thus, he gave the mountain this name.


  • Battle Mountain

  • Dawson noted the name in the 1870s. According to J.A. Teit, below this mountain 'may be seen a number of boulders which, according to tradition, are the transformed bodies of Alexandria warriors who strayed over the cliff in the dark while on the way to attack a camp of Chilcotin who lived in the vicinity' (The Shuswap, p. 784).


Visitors to this page: 1,135     Emails sent through this page: 1     This record last updated: December 8, 2022

Nearby:
Nearby Lakes and Mountains:
  • Dutch Lake, 2km
  • Russell Lake, 6km
  • Axel Lake, 12km
  • Sock Lake, 13km
  • Foghorn Mountain, 13km
  • McCarthy Lake, 13km
  • Lolo Lake, 10km
  • Star Lake, 10km
  • Colborne Lake, 11km
  • Hallamore Lake, 17km
  • Clearwater Peak, 12km
  • Granite Mountain, 17km
  • Baldy Mountain, 20km
  • Skwilatin Mountain, 14km
  • Sheila Lake, 18km
  • Raft Mountain, 15km
  • Reflector Lake, 15km
  • Lemieux Lake, 16km
  • Lizard Head Mountain, 18km
  • Mount McClennan, 14km
  • Efdee Lake, 21km
  • Grizzly Lakes, 17km
  • Grizzly Mountain, 16km
  • Grizzly Cub Mountain, 16km
  • Trophy Mountain, 20km
  • Dunn Peak, 24km
  • Mount Loveway, 21km
  • Dunn Lake, 24km
  • Moira Lake, 21km
  • Moul Lake, 24km
  • Green Mountain, 26km
  • Johnston Lake, 23km
  • McCorvie Lake, 17km
  • Mount Olie, 24km
  • Philip Lake, 26km
  • Surprise Lake, 19km
  • Demers Lake, 23km
  • Mount Fennell, 27km
  • Chu Chua Mountain, 29km
  • Table Mountain, 25km
  • McTaggart Lakes, 29km
  • Foot Lake, 31km
  • Placid Lake, 32km
  • Tintlhohtan Lake, 21km
  • Moosehead Lake, 21km
  • Fight Lake, 31km
  • Crater Lake, 22km
  • Harp Mountain, 28km
  • Mount Philip, 30km
  • Hardcastle Lake, 22km