NOVEMBER 2001 NEWSLETTER

Peakfinder Updates

For those of us interested in the names of mountains minor controversies come up from time to time.

For example, what is a hill and what is a mountain? One Peakfinder user thought that "The Hill of the Flowers," even thought it is named a hill, should be included in Peakfinder because it is a high, isolated feature. It does have interesting history as well so we've added it to the database.

A small, high point just at the entrance to the front ranges in Highwood Gap has generated some discussion as well. The peak has no official name and we had always referred to it as Grizzly Mountain because that is what the people we know in the area refer to it as. However, Gill Daffern advises that she has photos dated 1923 upon which the peak is noted as Mount Mann. To further complicate things, the mountain has also been referred to as The Battleship.

Another discussion has taken place regarding the location of Mount O'Rourke in the High Rock Range. The location shown on the NTS topographical maps and on the Interprovincial Boundary Survey's atlas shows the mountain as a minor outlier (on the B.C. side) to a much higher (9450') and un-named peak located on the Continental Divide, 1.6 km to the southeast. One wonders why the name is attached to the minor outlier. Perhaps the name was applied to the wrong location on the original map and it has never been placed where it was meant to be. Or maybe Arthur Wheeler and the boundary surveyors had their reasons for ignoring the higher peak on the divide and placing a name on the outlier.

Please note that all of the previous newsletters have been archived and are available on the site. If you're interested in other esoteric lists, unusual mountain names, etc. look through the earlier issues. 


November's Unusual Canadian Rockies Name

MOUNT ANDROMACHE

Andromache was a woman in Greek mythology who was the wife of Hector. This mountain stands to the north of Mount Hector. In this case, however, the "Hector" was James Hector of the Palliser Expedition.

Enter "Mount Andromache" in the Finding Peaks search box to learn more about this mountain. 

Look who's honoured in the Canadian Rockies

HENRY J. WARRE

Lt. Henry J. Warre of the 14th Regiment and Mervin Vavasour of the Royal Engineers were ordered by the Governor General to cross the Rockies disguised as private adventures and evaluate the mountain passes from a military point of view.

Warre documented their journey in a journal that was later published as, "Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory." He described the trip as follows, "Our passage over the magnificent range of the lofty mountains was not accomplished without much difficulty, and a fearful sacrifice of the noble animals that aided us in the transport. We left Edmonton with sixty horses; on our arrival at Fort Colville, on the Columbia River, we had only twenty-seven, and several of these so exhausted they could not have continued many more days. The steepness of the mountain passes, the want of proper nourishment, the fearful falls that some of the animals sustained, rolling in some instances many hundred feet into the foaming torrent beneath, combined to cause this great loss. The scenery was grand in the extreme; similar in form to the Alps of Switzerland, you felt that you were in the midst of desolation: no habitations, save those of the wild Indians were within hundreds of miles; but few civilized beings had ever even viewed this.

Warre's completed a series of excellent sketches along the way, one of which clearly shows a portion of Mount Rundle and Cascade Mountain. These were the first "artist's impressions" of the Canadian Rockies.

As for the military possibilities, Warre and Vavasour concluded that, "the idea of transporting troops...with their stores, etc. through such an extent of uncultivated country and over such impracticable mountains would appear to us quite infeasible."

For information about Mount Warre or Mount Vavasour enter the name in the Finding Peaks search box on the main page. For information regarding Lt. Warre and Mervin Vavasour and their explorations in the Canadian Rockies enter the names in the Finding People search box.
November's Esoteric List

MOUNTAINS NAMED AFTER POLITICIANS (including Governor Generals and Lt. Governors)
Mount Ball, Mount Barnard, Mount Bowlen, Buchanan Ridge, Mount Burgess, Mount Charles Stewart, Mount Clemenceau, Mount Cory, Mount Costigan, Mount George Graham, Mount Head, Mount Lougheed, Mount Michener, Mount Mowat, Mount Norquay, Pope's Peak, Mount Rutherford, Stanley Peak

For information regarding any of these peaks enter the name in the "Finding Peaks" section on the front page.

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