Adopted 12 December 1939, as proposed in 1936 by Captain R. P.Bishop, BCLS, and again by Bishop in February 1939. Re-approved 13 March 1947 on 92F/12.

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

A three-peak summit. Named "Rooster's Comb" in 1913 by Colonel Reginald Thompson when making his first reconnaissance survey of Strathcona Park, undoubtedly because - when viewed from the southwest and the northeast - the outline is similar to a cock's comb.

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

The highest mountain on Vancouver Island, named after Sir Francis Drake's flagship "Golden Hinde" to coincide with the 360th anniversary of Drake's arrival in these waters 10 June 1579 [note the Julian date; the change to the Gregorian calendar was made 3 years later in October 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII set the calendar ahead 10 days]. Drake was the first Englishman to enter the Pacific Ocean, sailing north from the Straits of Magellan as far as latitude 48° or 49° off the coast of Vancouver Island in his search for the North-West Passage, before returning south to refit his vessel in the vicinity of San Fransisco Bay, 17-23 June 1579. Drake proclaimed "Nova Albion" [literally "New England"] inscribed on a brass plaque nailed to a great post, signifying the first expansion of the British Empire on this coast. He returned to England by another route - only the second circumnavigation of the globe. [choosing to commemorate the 360th anniversary of Drake's voyage by naming this mountain refers to the 360° of the globe.] It has long been understood that Golden Hinde was repaired in the vicinity of San Fransisco Bay and Drake's plaque naming Nova Albion was installed nearby, and indeed the plaque was discovered** in the San Rafeal area of San Fransisco Bay in 1936, however, Sam Bawlf's book "Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake", 2001, offers compelling arguments that Drake actually sailed as far north as the mouth of the Stikine River, explored the Inside Passage and the Strait of Georgia, that "Nova Albion" claimed for Elizabeth I was on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and that Golden Hinde was actually repaired in Whale Cove on the Oregon coast, rather than on the California Coast.
**see the Journal of the California Historical Society, Vol 81, No. 2, 2002, pp116-133, identifying the brass plaque as a clever but modern forgery (copy on file B.1.38).

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

Drake's vessel, the Golden Hinde had been named by Drake himself: "...in remembrance of his most honorable friend, Sir Christopher Hatton [who had a golden hind or deer as a crest], Drake changed the name of the shippe, which himself went in, from the Pellican to be called the Golden Hinde." (from "The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake," Francis Fletcher et al: London: 1628, p.34)

Source: included with note

"First ascent of the Golden Hinde (Roosters Comb) circa 1912-13 by Einar Anderson, W.R. Kent and W.W. Urquhart, while part of the survey of the newly established Strathcona Provincial Park." (from Beyond Nootka: A Historical Perspective of Vancouver Island Mountains, by Lindsay Elms; Misthorn Press, Courtenay, 1996.)

Source: included with note

Second ascent 21 July 1937 by government surveyor N.C. Stewart and survey assistant Dan Harris; third ascent the following day by Comox Valley teenagers Roger Schjelderup, Sid Williams and Geoff Capes. (see Capes' own account in Canadian Alpine Journal 1969, p48). Norm Stewart confirmed in 1939 that this is the highest mountain on Vancouver Island: at 7219 feet / 2200 metres, it is 20 feet higher than Elkhorn Mountain. See also a detailed description of the July 2009 GPS survey by Harald and Nadja Steiner, where the elevation is determined to be 2196.818 metres (file ..../Place Names/Monographs/)

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

See file B.1.38 for correspondence about the merits of the name Golden Hinde, timing the naming to coincide with the King's visit to Victoria, galley proofs of R.P. Bishop's publication "Drake's Course in the North Pacific" and photocopies of the Vancouver Province article 8 July 1944, August 2000 editorials about Sam Bawlf's book "Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake", and 2002 article in the journal of the California Historical Society.

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