| Feature Type: | Creek (1) - Watercourse, usually smaller than a river. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | Flows E into Pouce Coupé River at Dawson Creek (city), SE of Fort St. John, Peace River Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 55°44'26"N, 120°07'04"W at the approximate mouth of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 93P/9 |
| Related Maps: |
93P/16 93P/9 |
|
|
Origin Notes and History:
|
Adopted 5 May 1949 on 93P/NE, as labelled on BC map 1H, 1917. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
|
After George Mercer Dawson, geologist? or after George Herbert Dawson, Surveyor-General of British Columbia 1912-17? Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
|
After outstanding Canadian geologist George Mercer Dawson, RSM, FGS. "On May 8, 1879 he set out from Fort Simpson with instructions to gain information as to physical features, possible economic importance, and other advantages for passage of a railway line by the CPR. He reached Edmonton at the end of November, having explored the Pine Pass Route, and with the help of another survey team, all known routes from the eastern Peace River District to Edmonton... He passed through our valley on August 11, camping August 12 in the Pouce River bottom... In appreciation Dawson Creek was named for this eminent man..." (M.E. Coutts, Dawson Creek Past and Present; Dawson Creek Historical Society, 1958, p.17) Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions |
|
"After George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901), the famous geologist who in 1895 became the head of the Geological Survey of Canada. A diminitive hunchback, Dawson showed heroic endurance in his surveys which took him up and down the length of British Columbia... Dawson Creek owes its name to Dawson himself. When he was in this area in 1879, looking for possible routes for the CPR, he gave the name of "Dawson's Brook" to this tributary of the Pouce Coupé River." Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973. |
|
"...in the summer of 1879, Dawson was travelling in this area and met Harry A.F. MacLeod, exploration engineer for the CPR. Although "Dawson's Brook" appears on Dawson's subsequent map, it may have been MacLeod who gave the name..." 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 |
|
Headwaters at 55 45 - 120 28 on 93P/16. Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa |