| Feature Type: | Mount - Variation of Mountain: Mass of land prominently elevated above the surrounding terrain, bounded by steep slopes and rising to a summit and/or peaks. ["Mount" preceding the name usually indicates that the feature is named after a person.] |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | N end of Tsaytut Spur, the divide between heads of Driftwood, Squingula and Bear Rivers, NW of head of Takla Lake, Cassiar Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 56°10'14"N, 126°55'38"W at the approximate centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 94D/2 |
|
|
Origin Notes and History:
|
Mount Coccola adopted 23 April 1940 on Geological Survey sheet 622A, McConnell Creek; not "Mount Morice" as labelled on BC map 1H, 1917, and identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
|
Name change to Mount Coccola suggested in June 1936 by Frank Swannell, BCLS, as there was already another Mount Morice in the area. After Reverend Father Coccola (1854-1943), OMI, who was the priest in charge of this district after Father Morice. Mr. Swannell reports that Father Coccola actually visited this area in 1912, whereas Father Morice was never in this section so far as is known. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
|
Born 1854 in Corsica, Brother Nicholas Coccola arrived from France, at Victoria July 1880, and was ordained the following year at St. Mary's Mission, Kamloops. Although he never received medical training he was renowned for his skill as a doctor, dentist & surgeon, and established a society of midwives among the Indian women. Assigned to St. Eugene's Mission (Cranbrook) in 1891, and arranged for the building of a school, hospital & church in Nelson. The Nelson Daily News, 27 April 1921, mentions Reverend Father Coccola, pioneer missionary in the Kootenays, who subsequently made his home at Prince Rupert. Coccola died at Prince Rupert in 1943, age 89. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |