BCGNIS Query Results

Sir Alexander, MountOfficial Name
Feature Type:Mount
Latitude:53°56'00" Position at: CENTRE
Longitude:120°23'00"
Gazetteer Map:93H/16
Relative Location:N. of McGregor River, SE. of Kitchi Creek, Cariboo Land District
Return all features within 5Km proximity View geographical name location on a 1:250K mapsheet

Origin Notes and History

Mount Kitchi adopted 21 September 1915 as a well-established name in mountaineering circles (Ottawa file OBF 0216). Name changed to Mount Alexander Mackenzie 6 September 1916 as recommended by American alpinist S.Prescott Fay (Ottawa file OBF 0216, item 72). Further changed to Mount Sir Alexander in the 15th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1917.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

The most northerly outpost of the higher Canadian Rockies. Known since its discovery as Kitchi, being the Cree word for "big" or "great", and so-identified by climber Mary L. Jobe in 1914; she and her guide Don Phillips, climbed the peak in August 1914. Mary Jobe's article "Mt. Kitchi, A New Peak in the Canadian Rockies" was published in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol XLVII, No. 7, 1915, pp.481-497 (copy received May 1920, on BC file 34275s Pt.1). "Later a traveller who saw it but did not set foot on it, proposed the name 'Mount Alexander Mackenzie'...although Mackenzie was never at any time during his historic journey near enough to see it...." (Frederick Vreeland, "Early Visits to Mount Sir Alexander", American Alpine Journal, 1930, pp 114-119 with map). [the "traveller" was Prof. S. Prescott Fay (Museum of Natural History, New York?), who was also in the area in 1914; he succeedeed in influencing the Geographic Board of Canada to reverse their decision to adopt Mt. Kitchi in favour of his own suggestion, Mount Alexander Mackenzie.]
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"After Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1755-1820) who crossed the Rockies to the Pacific in 1793 near this mountain." (17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1915.)
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"The writer is unable to say who first saw this mountain. Mackenzie certainly did not. E.W. Jarvis, an intrepid explorer for the proposed CPR, passed within 10 miles of it in February 1875 when he discovered the pass which bears his name just north of Mount Sir Alexander. But there are only one or two locations on his route from which the mountain can be seen, and as he made the trip in the dead of winter it is quite probable that the peak was wrapped in clouds, as it is a large part of the time, and that he had no knowledge of its presence. This conclusion is borne out by the fact that he described the next highest mountain in the region, a very conspicuous peak eight miles northeast of Mount Sir Alexander, and named it, for reasons best known to himself, "Mount Ida"." (Frederick Vreeland, "Early Visits to Mount Sir Alexander", American Alpine Journal, 1930, pp 114-119 with map, copy on file V.1.33). R.W. Jones, surveyor for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, saw the peak in 1904 and used it in his work, estimating the elevation as 12,000 ft (ibid, quoting Appalachia Alpine Journal, Vol xiii, p.253).
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office