Mount Blanchet
Feature Type:Mount - Variation of Mountain: Mass of land prominently elevated above the surrounding terrain, bounded by steep slopes and rising to a summit and/or peaks. ["Mount" preceding the name usually indicates that the feature is named after a person.]
Status: Official
Name Authority: BC Geographical Names Office
Relative Location: Between Takla Lake and Northwest Arm Takla Lake, NW of Fort St. James, Cassiar Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 55°13'51"N, 125°49'05"W at the approximate centre of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 93N/4
Origin Notes and History:

Adopted 2 June 1950 on 93N, as labelled on Morice's 1907 map of Northern Interior of British Columbia, as labelled on BC map 3C, 1922 et seq, and as listed in the 1930 BC Gazetteer.

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

Likely named by Father Morice, after Brother George Blanchet, OMI, who arrived from France in September 1847, age 26 (?); originally with the Diocese of Walla Walla then soon transferred to the Diocese of Vancouver Island (encompassing all of present-day BC and Yukon). He remained a scholastic brother for more than 20 years before being ordained in 1872; in 1873 he went north with Father Le Jacq to found the mission of Our Lady of Good Hope at Stuart Lake. Already nicknamed "the builder", he built the church at Fort. St. James. In 1897 and almost totally blind, he retired to St. Joseph's Mission at Williams Lake and died there 17 November 1906.

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

NOT named after Bishop Blanchet, nor Archbishop Blanchet:
In July 1846, Archbishop Francis Norbet Blanchet, OMI, was appointed bishop of the ecclesiastical province consisting of the present states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, plus Vancouver Island, the BC mainland and Yukon. (see his photograph in "Cross in the Wilderness" by Kay Cronin, Mitchell Press, 1960, opp.p.9). Almost immediately after its founding the area was divided into the diocese of Walla Walla (eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana), and the diocese of Vancouver Island (all of present-day BC and Yukon). The Archbishop's brother, Bishop Magloire Blanchet, was appointed Bishop of Walla Walla.

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

Histoire des familles Blanchet et Blanchette d'Amérique, by Louis Blanchet, Histograff, 1996 (leaflet on file M.1.37).

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