Adopted 30 June 1911, as labelled on Lieut. Mayne's 1859 Sketch Map of British Columbia, and on Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia, etc.

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

Named by Alexander Caulfield Anderson (1814-1884), HBC, after himself, at the request of Governor James Douglas. Anderson had explored the route in 1846 while searching for a fur brigade route from Fort Kamloops to the lower Fraser River, and in 1858 he was commissioned by Governor Douglas to establish a route from the head of Harrison Lake via the lakes to what is now known as Lillooet; his trail connecting Harrision, Lillooet, Anderson and Seton Lakes was the first route to the upper Fraser and Cariboo gold fields. "....On that occasion Mr. Anderson, by request of Governor Douglas, named the first lake for himself and the second after [his cousin] Colonel Seton, who was in command of the troops on board HMS Birkenhead when she was lost in 1852. The connecting link between the two lakes he named Birkenhead Strait. It will be seen by Mr Anderson's journal that Lillooet proper is far removed from the present town of Lillooet, the proper name of which is Cayoosh" (c1917 note on BC name card)

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

The first explorer of this region was Francis Ermatinger of HBC who went from Fort Kamloops up the "Peseline" or "Pishaleor" or "Pasilico" Lakes [now Seton and Anderson Lakes] and across to the "Li-Li-What" [Lillooet] River in 1827. (Anderson Lake) being mentioned as "second Peseline Lake" (letter, John McLoughlin to Governor Simpson, 17 April 1827; letter, McLoughlin to Archibald McDonald, 17 November 1827; reports by McDonald to Simpson, 25 February 1830, and 10 February 1831, HBC Archives).

Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions

"....In accordance with the wish of His Excellency Governor Douglas that I should name these lakes after myself, I have given my own name to one of them, so far deviating from the desire expressed as to give the second (lake) the name of a near relative and playmate of my early days, Colonel Alexander Seton of the 74th, whose heroic fate I also commemorate by naming the connecting link, the Birkenhead Strait, after the ship in which he so nobly perished...." (Footnote by A.C. Anderson on his map, accompanying the manuscript notes prepared by his son, J.R. Anderson)

Source: Anderson, James Robert; Notes and comments on early days and events in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon; manuscript, 1925 (Provincial Archives E/B/An 2)

....the author of some of the best descriptive pamphlets and essays on the province (see Victoria Colonist 10 May 1884). See Walbran for A.C. Anderson's career biography.

Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)