Refuge Cove adopted 3 April 1934 on C.340, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 584, 1861 et seq. Name changed to Hot Springs Cove (harbour) by Royal Proclamation 18 January 1949. Confirmed 1 October 1959 on C.3648, as recommended by Hydrographic Service. Form of name changed to Hot Springs Cove (cove) 14 May 1982 on 92E/8.

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

Labelled "Refuge Cove" on early charts and on BC map 2A, 1913 etc. In 1930, Ivan Clarke, a Victoria-born former tugboat master equipped with $1000 worth of provisions, pitched a tent and set up a "General Store" midway along the east shore of Refuge Cove, doing business with the remote fishing camps and communities along the coast. He expanded his enterprise to include fish-buying, marine fuel and repairs, and upwards of 200 salmon trollers used Refuge Cove as their base during the 8-month season. Scheduled CPR steamer service to Sydney Inlet via Refuge Cove (landing) so-identified in timetables from 1940 or earlier. Clarke applied for a post office franchise, was presumably denied the name "Refuge Cove" due to duplication elsewhere, and settled upon the name Hot Springs Cove for the post office, in association with the hot springs just behind Sharp Point at the entrance to the cove. Hot Springs Cove Post Office was opened 23 June 1948, located on Lot 1372 at Refuge Cove Landing. The "Harbour of Hot Springs Cove" was declared by Royal Proclamation 18 January 1949. The delineation at 49° 22' x 126° 16' is the feature heretofore known as Refuge Cove. The proclamation does not refer to the pre-existing name Refuge Cove, and the change of name was not put before the Geographic Board of Canada either before or at the time of the proclamation. It was not until July 1959, during production of a new marine chart, that the decade-old proclamation was brought to the attention of the Geographic Board by the Hydrographic Service, Department of Mines & Technical Surveys (file C.1.33).

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

Proclamation:- "Whereas it is in and by Section 593 of the Canada Shipping Act 1934 that Our Governor in Council may, by proclamation, declare to be a public harbour any area covered with water within the jurisdiction of Our Parliament of Canada. And whereas it is expedient, and Our Privy Council for Canada has advised that the Harbour of Hot Springs Cove, in the Province of British Columbia, the limits of which shall be defined as all the waters of Hot Springs Cove north of a line drawn from the southern extremity of Sharp Point on a bearing 252° true to an unnamed point located approximately a half nautical mile distant as shown on Canadian Hydrographic Chart 3468 be declared a public harbour. Now Know that We do by these Presents proclaim and declare the said harbour of Hot Springs Cove to be a public harbour..." (The Canada Gazette, No.8, vol LXXXIII, pt 1, p.649, 19 January 1949, signed at Government House 18 January 1949.)

Source: included with note

"Formerly known as Refuge Cove, because of the safe anchorage it afforded ships in all weathers, the name was changed by the Hydrographic Survey [sic] in order that mariners might not confuse it with another Refuge Cove on the south end of Redonda Island, at the entrance to Homfray Channel, on the mainland coast...." (Victoria Colonist 9 August 1964, Islander Section pp4-5, describing the devastating effect of the tidal surge to this area, in the aftermath of the Alaska earthquake on Easter Sunday, 1964).

Source: included with note