Deadman 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 S into Thompson River, just W of Kamloops Lake, Kamloops Division Yale Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 50°44'38"N, 120°55'07"W at the approximate mouth of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 92I/10
Related Maps:
Origin Notes and History:

Deadman River adopted 7 June 1927 on 92I/NE, as labelled on Geological Survey sheet 557, Kamloops, 1895, and as labelled on Dominion sectional sheet 111, Kamloops, 1916.

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

Labelled "Dead River" on John Arrowsmith's 1859 & 1862 maps "Provinces of British Columbia & Vancouver Island...".
Labelled "Defeant River" on Royal Engineers' 1862 map "British Columbia: ...Lillooet to Kamloops & Okanagan Lake". [perhaps a mis-spelling of défaillant? which would suggest "weakness" or "losing strength"].
Labelled "Riv. du Def...t" on Alexander Caulfield Anderson's 1867 manuscript "Portion of the Colony of British Columbia...including personal explorations between 1832 & 1851" [some of the text is unreadable, but likely "Rivière du Défunt", meaning River of the Deceased].
Labelled "Defeant River" on Trutch's 1871 map "British Columbia to the 56th Parallel".
Labelled "Deadman's Creek" on George Dawson's 1877 map "Portion of the Southern Interior of British Columbia".

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

Shown as "River Chivrette - where he was killed in 182x" (exact year indistinct) on Sketch of Thompson's River District, 1827, by Archibald McDonald, HBC. Called "Rivière Defant" by Lieut. Mayne, RN, in 1896 (papers....p.126) probably meaning "defunt," deceased. Chivrette no doubt was a French Canadian HBC employee.

Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions

"In 1817 Pierre Charette, Nor'wester, was killed by his travelling companion in a quarrel over the campsite. In 1828 McDonald named it Chivrette River, and in 1835 Black used Knife River, but it soon achieved its present designation. Dawson found the Shuswap name had been Hai in wohl, meaning a circle or detour."

Source: Place Names of the Kamloops District; Kamloops Museum, 1978

Headwaters at 51 07 - 120 52 on 92P/2.

Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa