Marble Canyon adopted 3 April 1952 on 82N/SE; not "Marble Cañon" as spelled on 1928 map of Kootenay National Park and on 1932 map of Yoho National Park.

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

Descriptive. Rock here is white marble, from the recrystallization of limestone. In many places along the canyon the marble has been eroded into unusual patterns: in some places single boulders or groups of boulders have been whirled round and round in eddying currents, to wear away very round potholes or bowls into the solid rock. In the upper canyon, most of the water bypasses what used to be the main stream and now plunges into a deep hole, forming a natural arch. There are several similar arches and partial arches in the lower canyon. It is probable that these began by water leaking down cracks and joints in the rock, gradually dissolving and wearing away alternate channels. Once a substantial volume of water starts flowing through a shortcut, the speed of abrasion from fine particles is greatly increased, and within a relatively few years the course of the stream is changed.

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

Possibly named by attendees at the Alpine Club of Canada's Vermillion Pass Camp, 1912. A subsidiary camp had been established on Tokumm Creek about 5 miles above this canyon, and daily expeditions were made past here: "[Tokumm Creek] joins Vermillion River through a magnificent gorge, or box canyon, so narrow that at several places the fissure, for it seems little more than a crack in the rock strata, is bridged by great boulders that have become wedged across it. It was a feature well worth seeing." (CAJ, vol V, 1913, pp. 100-137)

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