Adopted 4 September 1958 on Hydrographic Services Chart 3730, "Dean Channel and North and South Bentick Arms." Named in association with Kimsquit River and Kimsquit (locality).

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff, File H.1.25.

The name comes from the Heiltsuk First Nation word meaning “place of the canyon people” (the canyon in question being on the lower Dean R, just E of its mouth). The Kimsquit are members of the Nuxalk First Nation and once occupied several villages in this remote area, including Nut’l, the main one, located at the mouth of the Dean R. Their settlements were mostly abandoned by the 1920s. Kimsquit was the site of one of the last gunboat actions on the BC coast when, in 1877, HMS Rocket, under Lt Cdr Charles Harris, shelled and burned the Nut’l village. Several of its residents had allegedly murdered the survivors of the wreck of the George S Wright in Queen Charlotte Sd in 1873 – though his charge was never proven. Kimsquit Cannery was constructed by Robert Draney on the E side of Bean Channel in 1901 and later (1912-24) owned by Henry Doyle and R V Winch of Northern BC Fisheries. It was purchased by BC Packers Ltd in 1928, shut down in 1935 and dismantled in 1938. On the W side of the channel, Japanese fishermen set up a sawmill. Manitou Cannery was built there in 1907 by George Dawson and Alfred Buttimer, and acquired in 1925 by the Canadian Fishing Co, which closed it shortly thereafter. The Kimsquit area was at one time considered a possible western terminus for the transcontinental railroad. It has been home to many logging operations over the years and is noted worldwide for it sport fishing, especially for steelhead. The Kimsquit R was formerly known as Chatsquot R (also spelled Tsatsquot, Chedsquit, and Chadsquot); this name is kept alive on the Kimsquit’s N arm, now Chatsquot Ck, while Chatsquot Mtn, the highest peak in the region, towers over Kimsquit Lk. Nearby Kimsquit Peak and Kimsquit Ridge are also named for this First Nation group.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, page 308.