Quinsam River
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 NE into Campbell River just E of John Hart Lake, within Campbell River (city), Sayward Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 50°02'14"N, 125°17'38"W at the approximate mouth of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 92K/3
Related Maps:
Other Recorded Names:
Kʷənsəm
Origin Notes and History:

Adopted 6 January 1949 on 92F/14, as labelled on BC map 2C, 1919 et seq (L.I. 13 June 1952).

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office, file B.3.51

Headwaters at 49 55 - 125 33 on 92F/13.

Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa

"From the Island Comox ... name meaning 'resting place.' The area was important for the Island Comox people since a special mask, known as xwayxway, was believed to have fallen here from the sky" (Information from entry for Quinsam Lake).

Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; "British Columbia Place Names"; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997, pp. 222.