| Feature Type: | River - Watercourse of variable size, which has tributaries and flows into a body of water or a larger watercourse. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | Flows SW into North Thompson River between Kamloops and Clearwater, Kamloops Division Yale Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 51°10'25"N, 120°08'19"W at the approximate mouth of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92P/1 |
| Related Maps: |
82M/12 82M/4 82M/5 92P/1 |
|
|
Origin Notes and History:
|
Barrière River adopted 11 August 1921 for Pub # 1945 (Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report 1921, Pt. A, p.72) as labelled on Geological Survey map of Southern Interior of British Columbia, 1877 et seq. Barrière River confirmed 3 March 1955 on 92P. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
|
Named by French Canadian fur traders because it was difficult to cross. "The [Barrière River] as its name imports, is sometimes crossed with difficulty in the spring." (G.M. Dawson, Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report, 1877-78). Labelled "Barriere (Saskum) River" on Forestry map R.35 (date not cited). Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
|
or.... was it so named because the Indians had a fish-trap across it ? Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions |
|
"The mouth of the river was so-named by 1828, when Archibald McDonald achieved our first map. Rocks at that site were an impediment to navigation, and French was the fur traders' language." Source: Place Names of the Kamloops District; Kamloops Museum, 1978 |
|
Headwaters at 51 31 - 119 42 on 82M/12. Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa |