Adopted 28 May 1915. Includes to its source the South Branch of the North Fork of the Fraser River. Formerly also known as Big Salmon River.

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

A quartet of streams: Captain Creek, James Creek, Herrick Creek, and McGregor River, all named in memory of Captain James Herrick McGregor, PLS. McGregor was leading his men, a Company of the 16th Battalion Canadian Highland Brigade, in the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgian Flanders, when he fell 25 April 1915, age 46. His name is enscribed on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. [note that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission identifies 24 April 1915 as the date of death ]

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

McGregor was born at Côte des Neiges, a suburb of Montreal, in 1869, and received his early education in the east. He came to western Canada in 1891, obtaining his commission as a Provincial Land Surveyor in April of that year. He practised his profession for a few years in the Kootenays and subsequently removed to Victoria. He was president of the Corporation of BC Land Surveyors in 1908. Though leading a busy life professionally, he found time to exercise his highly developed literary talent, which found expression both in prose and poem. "The Wisdom of Waloopi" is a collection of literary gems from his pen. He enlisted early in the war, and left Victoria with the 50th Gordon Highlanders for Valcartier. Captain McGregor was President of the Union Club, Victoria, at the time he enlisted. He was married in 1896 to Miss E. Francis Gordon Walker of Edinburgh, who, with a family of 4 children, survives him at Cadboro Bay, Victoria. (from "Roll of Honour", Corporation of British Columbia Land Surveyors)

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