| Feature Type: | River - Watercourse of variable size, which has tributaries and flows into a body of water or a larger watercourse. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | Flows NE from Anderson Lake through Seton Lake thence E into Fraser River at Lillooet, Lillooet Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 50°40'50"N, 121°55'43"W at the approximate mouth of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92I/12 |
| Related Maps: |
92I/12 92J/9 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Seton Creek adopted in the 15th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1917, referring to the stream flowing from Seton Lake into Cayoosh Creek. Description altered in March 1950 - this stream flows directly into the Fraser River (and Cayoosh Creek is a tributary). Name changed to Seton River 6 September 1951 on 92J, and application extended to include the channel above Seton Lake, formerly known as Portage Creek. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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"After wife of A.C. Anderson, Hudson's Bay Company officer." [the explanation published in the 15th Report GBC is widely circulated and often repeated, but is not correct.] Source: 15th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1917 (supplement to the Annual Report of the Dept of the Interior, 1917, Ottawa) |
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The following refers to the upper portion of the river - between Seton and Anderson Lakes: "....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) |
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The upper portion of the river - between Seton and Anderson Lakes - is identified as "Portage Creek" on plan 34T3 (date/title not cited), and in Fish & Wildlife Branch name list, April 1969, file F.1.67. Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff. |