McKale River adopted 23 May 1963 on 82E/5, as labelled on BC maps since 1914.

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

Labelled "Stoney River" on BC map 1A, 1912. Labelled "McKale River (Blackwater)" on BC map 3H, 1914, 1915, 1919, 1923, 1931, 1947 & 1951. Labelled just "McKale River" on 1958 edition of BC map 3H.

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

Likely refers to Jim and Jack McKale (relationship not cited, possibly brothers), who owned land across the Fraser River from McBride in 1914.

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

Named in 1913 by J.A. Walker, BCLS, after James McKale, timber cruiser at McBride; served in Forestry Btn. in Great War I; identified as a timber cruiser in the 1930 & 1934 McBride Directories; died in 1948. (information from Walker's survey report, 15 December 1913, and as relayed by Walker to Provincial Archives' staff, 3 June 1949)

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

"...my grandfather, George Monroe, named the river 'Blackwater'. He and the McKale men were homesteaders here in the same year...1914. My Grampse came into the area as a supplier (pack horse, horse teams) for the advance crew of the GTP Railroad in 1912. He chose a homestead northwest of McBride (southeast of McKale River) along the Fraser, gazetting his claim in 1913 and settling in 1914. I remember family discussion about the Forestry (Jim) McKale when I was a kid, [and] mention of his brother too..." (information provided April 2006 by Monroe's grandaughter, Sheilagh Foster)

Source: included with note