| Feature Type: | Town - A populated place with legally defined boundaries, incorporated as a town municipality under the provincial Municipal Act. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | NE side of Vancouver Island, SE of Port Hardy, Rupert Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 50°35'21"N, 127°05'00"W at the approximate location of the Municipal Hall. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92L/11 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Port McNeill (Post Office & Landing) adopted 6 May 1947. Incorporated as a Village Municipality 18 February 1966. Re-incorporated as a Town Municipality 17 April 1982. Port McNeill (Town) confirmed 19 November 1984. Boundary extension per Order in Council 159, 25 March 2010, now including portions of Sec 16, 21 & 28 to the west of the original municipal footprint. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Port McNeill Post Office was opened 1 May 1938, situated on L24, Tp2; closed 1939 then re-opened in 1944. See also the municipality's own website. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Named in association with the adjacent water feature, in turn named in 1837 by officers of the Hudsons Bay Company, after Captain William Henry McNeill (1801-1875). See extensive biographical information in Walbran's "British Columbia Coast Names". Also McNeill Bay. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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".....a native of Boston, Massachusetts, Captain McNeill was first on this coast in 1825 with the trading vessel Convoy. In the summer of 1832 the Hudson's Bay Company, desperately in need of an extra ship for its coastal trade, sent Chief Factor Duncan Finlayson to Honolulu where he bought McNeill's brig Llama, and hired McNeill and his two mates to navigate. McNeill never became a British subject but served the Hudson's Bay Company faithfully for the rest of his active life." Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997 |
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Port McNeill has laid claim to the title "the first town incorporated in Canada since patriation of the Constitution" - - - three hours after HM Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed the Constitution, Port McNeill was incorporated as a town (Ottawa file 203-2). Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa |