| Feature Type: | Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | NE end of Little Shuswap Lake, Kamloops Division Yale Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 50°52'24"N, 119°36'44"W at the approximate population centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 82L/13 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Squilax (Railway Station) adopted 3 November 1932 on 82L/NW at 50° 52' 15" - 119° 34' 25"; form of name changed to Squilax (Community) and coordinates adjusted 9 September 1994 on 82 L/11. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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The community stretches around the shore at the northeast end of Little Shuswap Lake, on Quaaout Indian Reserve 1. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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"[Indigenous] name meaning "bear". The authors vividly remember visiting an old, old [Indigenous man] named Michel Toma, who was a young buck when the CPR was building its transcontinental line at Squilax. He told them that a black bear had wandered out from the woods and along the cleared strip where the tracks were to be laid. The men laying the tracks asked the Indigenous onlookers what they called a black bear in their language. "Squilax," replied the[onlookers], and so this station got its name." Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973. |