| Feature Type: | Canyon (2) - Deep, narrow valley with precipitous walls. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | Fraser Canyon, between Spuzzum and Boston Bar, N of Hope, Yale Division Yale Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 49°46'51"N, 121°26'58"W at the approximate centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92H/14 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Hells Gate (canyon) adopted 14 August 1952 on 92SE, as labelled on BC Lands' map 2B, 1914. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Note that "Hell's Gate Rapids" (referring to the water here) was labelled on Geological Survey of Canada's "Map of a portion of the Southern Interior of British Columbia" by G.M. Dawson, 1877. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Named by miners during the gold rush of 1857-58. [a few years later in the early 1860s, this section of the Fraser River canyon posed near-insurmountable challenges to the building of the Cariboo Wagon Road, offering direct access to the Cariboo gold fields.] Obstructions in the river here, created by construction of the CNR in 1913, were corrected by building fish tunnels in 1944-45. Source: Provincial Archives' Place Names File (the "Harvey File") compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions |
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"Simon Fraser had to portage around what he called the "gates of hell" during his descent of the river in 1808." Source: Encyclopedia of British Columbia; Daniel Francis, ed; Harbour Publishing Ltd, 2000. ISBN 1-55017-200-X |