| Feature Type: | City - A populated place with legally defined boundaries, incorporated as a city municipality under the provincial Municipal Act. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | S side of West Arm Kootenay Lake, Kootenay Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 49°29'35"N, 117°17'45"W at the approximate location of the Municipal Hall. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 82F/6 |
| Related Maps: |
82F/11 82F/6 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Incorporated 18 March 1897. Nelson (City) confirmed 7 October 1947 on Columbia River Basin manuscript 10, as long-labelled on maps. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Nelson Post Office was opened 1 August 1889. See also the municipality's own website. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Formerly called Salisbury. Re-named in 1888 after Hon. Hugh Nelson, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia at the time; a pioneer of the 1862 Cariboo gold rush and one-time Senator, in 1868 Nelson had been a delegate to the unsuccessful Yale Convention, where the entry of BC into Confederation was first considered. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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May be said to date from 1887, when its present site was located by a Mr. Sproat. In the following year, using a rope and some pickets, he roughly subdivided it into town lots, which sold readily. The first name of the city was Salisbury, after Lord Salisbury [Prime Minister of Britain], then Stanley after [the Governor General of Canada]. Later in the year 1888 it was named Nelson after Hugh Nelson (1830-1893), then Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia (17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 1922). Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Nelson was a leading businessman back in the Crown Colony period. He was associated with Wells Fargo during the Cariboo gold rush, and from 1866 to 1882 was vice-president and general manager of the Moodyville sawmill in present-day North Vancouver. Nelson was an ardent champion of confederation with Canada, and when British Columbia entered the dominion, he became the first MP for New Westminster, being elected by acclamation. He entered the Senate in 1879 and was appointed Lieutenant-Governor in 1887. He retired because of ill health in 1892 and died in England in 1893, having gone there in search of a cure. Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997 |