Canadian Mountain Place Names: The Rockies and Columbia Mountains. Rev. ed.

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

This updated edition contains more than 1,800 current and historical
mountain names in the “Canadian Alps,” an ill-defined area between
the 49th and 54th parallels described as “the classic area of North
American alpinism.” The authors make it clear that this is not a
guidebook or a gazetteer, nor is it exhaustive. They have made a special
effort to include named peaks over 9,000 feet in elevation.

Several good place-names books exist for both British Columbia and
Alberta. One might, therefore, wonder if another such book is required.
However, this one has the advantage of crossing provincial boundaries
and focusing on the areas of most interest to mountaineers. More
important, though, it is clearly a labour of love, prepared in time for
the Alpine Club of Canada’s centennial.

Each entry includes the name, elevation, date named, person who named
it, and source of the name (it does not tell you where the place is, so
the book can only be used by someone who knows a name and wants to find
its derivation). Some of the entries also contain some significant
regional history. For example, in the Illecillewaet River entry, the
authors tell the story of Walter Moberly, who faced a strike by his
guides while exploring the river. As a result he had to turn back,
“leaving Rogers Pass undiscovered for another 18 years.”

The book cites many good sources, including primary documents. However,
for reasons that are not obvious, it does not cite Place Names of
Alberta, Vol. 1: Mountains, Mountain Parks and Foothills, which is an
official names publication for the Alberta part of the Rockies. While
returning to source documents is a good practice, it is time-consuming.
The entries in the Alberta volume have been thoroughly researched and
documented, so there is little point in redoing the work.

This volume will be of most interest to libraries that support
mountaineering collections and is recommended for public libraries in
the Rocky Mountains region.