Adopted 7 March 1933 on Geological Survey sheet 278A, Prince Rupert, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 2431, 1869 et seq, and on BC map 3M, 1916, as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer.

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

"Named in 1868 by Captain Pender, RN, when surveying Portland channel [sic], after Captain Pearse, USA, in command of a detachment of the 2nd US Artillery... stationed on Tongass Island in 1868. This was the first military post established by the United States government in Alaska after they had acquired, by purchase, that territory from Russia in 1867, for the sum of $7,200,000 in gold. Before the final settlement of the Canada-Alaskan boundary in 1903 this island was claimed by the United States government to be under their jurisdication; by the award it is now part of British Columbia."

Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)

According to documentary evidence provided by the National Archives and Records Service, Washington, DC, a Captain Charles H. Peirce, 2nd US Artillery, was stationed at Fort Tongass, Alaska, 1868-1870; they have no record of a Captain Pearse. (presumably Capt. Pender or Admiralty cartographers mis-spelled the name).

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