Adopted 1 April 1917 in the 16th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada. (Ottawa file OBF 0393).

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

Dr. Israel Wood Powell (1836-1915), from Ontario, was educated at McGill University in Montreal and first practised medicine at Port Dover. He moved to New Zealand and then, in 1862, to Victoria, where he worked as a surgeon and married Jane Branks in 1865. Powell was a leading Freemason in BC and a prominent public figure: member of Vancouver Island's colonial legislative assembly, 1863-66, and chairman of the board of education, 1867-69. A staunch supporter of Confederation, he was offered the post of BC's first Lieutenant Governor but chose to be superintendent of Indian Affairs instead, a position he held from 1872 to 1889. Powell took a non-confrontational approach to First Nation issues, supporting claims to land and justice but promoting assimilation and opposing potlatch ceremonies. He became a major collector of aboriginal artifacts and an astute and wealthy investor in land, Powell was appointed the first president of the Medical Council of BC and first chancellor of UBC. Powell River and Powell Lake were named in 1880 by Lieutenant Colonel Vere Orlebar of HMS Rocket. The community of Powell River located where the river enters the Strait of Georgia, formed around on of BC's first pulp and paper mills, built in 1910-1912 by Brooks, Scanlon & O'Brien Co. This mill later owned by Macmillan, Bloedel & Powell River Co, was at one time the world's largest, with 2,000 employees. The Powell River townsite, a well- preserved classic company town, was preserved as an official heritage area in 1995. The district of Powell River, established in 1955, also includes the former villages of Wildwood Heights and Cranberry Lake, as well as the commercial and residential centre of Westview.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, pp. 475.

The Sliammon village, Thah yelh, was once located on the shore of this lake (Sliammon Treaty Society, March 2004); exact location not specified.

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

"Named in 1880 after Israel Wood Powell, MD, Indian Commissioner for British Columbia 1872-1889." (18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 1924). See also Powell River (river)

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