| Feature Type: | Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region. |
| Status: | Official |
| Other Names: | Benallack |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | N side Cowichan River just W of Duncan, Sahtlam Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 48°45'59"N, 123°48'04"W at the approximate population centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92B/13 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Sahtlam (settlement) adopted 6 November 1952 on 92B/13. Form of name changed to Sahtlam (community) 30 January 1981. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Sahtlam Post Office opened 1 April 1926. Re-named Benallack Post Office 1 October 1926, situated on Lot 2, Sec 10, R 10 adjacent to the railway station of the same name. Name changed back to Sahtlam Post Office 1 December 1928; closed 6 October 1944. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Identified as "Saatlaam" in Robert Brown's report of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, 1864; identified as "Tzartlam" in Report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia, 1916. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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"Sahtlam is Indian for maple trees; there was a fishing station here at one time and it was surrounded by maple trees." (May 1959 advice from Walter Elliott, Tzuhalem Band). According to David L. Rozen in his "Ethnogeography of the Cowichan River, British Columbia", 1977, the name is from ts'ólho7em, place of leaves. According to T.W. Paterson, Cowichan Valley Citizen, 16 November 2005, Saat laam means place of green leaves. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |