Adopted by Geographic Board of Canada 5 August 1948, as identified in BC Mines Report 1916, p.316.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

N.C. Stewart, BCLS, determined the following elevations by triangulation in 1937: top of falls 3415 feet; bottom of falls 1972 feet = vertical drop of 1443 feet, the highest in British Columbia and in Canada. Through most of the year the fall is in two vertical drops: 800 foot vertical drop, 200 foot cascade, then another 400 foot vertical drop; Stewart advised that, after heavy rains, the Della waters drop in a single vertical fall, confirmed by Ted Fairhurst of federal forestry department, 1962. See articles and photographs in Victoria Times, 8,10 & 11 September 1962. See also Canadian Geographic magazine, June/July 1988. History on file T.1.43, July 1973.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Della Lake and Della Falls were named by Joe Drinkwater after his wife, Della (nee Fayette) (1880 - ), whom he had married in 1899. In the autumn of that year, Joe Drinkwater and Davie Nichols, prospectors from Port Alberni, had staked the Big Interior Group of claims near here. Della Lake is first mentioned by name in the 1906 BC Mines Report, p.194; the waterfall is described but not named in same report. Della Drinkwater was in the Yukon at the time of her death (date & circumstances not cited).

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office