City of Dawson Creek Peace River Regional District, British Columbia

City - A populated place with legally defined boundaries, incorporated as a city municipality under the provincial Municipal Act. SE of Fort St. John, Peace River Land District

Mapped Location

City of Dawson Creek: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on City of Dawson Creek

  • Feature Type: Incorporated

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Dawson Creek

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name Description
City of Dawson Creek Official

 

Origin Notes and History of City of Dawson Creek

References to City of Dawson Creek that document the origin of its place name

Incorporated as a Village Municipality 26 May 1936. Dawson Creek (Village) confirmed 5 May 1949 on 93P/NE. Re-incorporated as a City 1 January 1958, the first incorporation in British Columbia's centennial year. Dawson Creek (City) confirmed 27 June 1967 on 93/NE.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

Dawson Creek Post Office was opened 1 November 1921, Miss Dova W. Cusak, postmistress. See also the municipality's own website.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

In 1919, W.S. Bullen opened a small store (exact location not cited). The following year a hotel was built, costing $2,200, managed by Mrs. Kirkham. The original Dawson Creek townsite was on Bullen's farm, so-named because of its proximity to a small stream called Dawson Creek, in turn named after George Mercer Dawson (1849 - 1901), who had conducted the original surveys in this district May through August 1879, for Geological Survey of Canada. The townsite was relocated eastward with the advent of the Northern Alberta Railway (date not cited). [See Dawson Creek (creek, 93P/9) for additional biographical information, also "British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906" by Capt. John T. Walbran; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971) ]

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

 

A Selected Bibliography of City of Dawson Creek, Peace River Regional District, British Columbia

A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.

Dawson Creek, past and present an historical sketch by M. E. Coutts

Title Cover Image

M. E. Coutts’s Dawson Creek, Past and Present chronicles the dramatic evolution of a remote agrarian outpost situated on the grueling ecological frontier where the fertile Peace River prairies collide with the unforgiving boreal wilderness of northern British Columbia. The narrative maps how profound continental isolation and punishing subarctic winters initially restricted early pioneers to localized survival, completely severed from southern markets by vast expanses of impenetrable muskeg and rugged alpine barriers. By detailing the explosive military engineering of the Alaska Highway, the text illustrates how the urgent geopolitical necessity to bridge these massive northern distances drove the rapid construction of an unprecedented overland transit corridor. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that deploying mechanized infrastructure to conquer this harsh, landlocked geography was the absolute prerequisite for transforming an isolated prairie settlement into the vital, industrialized gateway to the subarctic frontier.

115 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Non-circulating [ 1 ]
History · 1st Edition · Dawson Creek Historical Society, Dawson Creek, B.C.?, 1958
Related Catalog Items: City of Dawson Creek · Peace River Regional District

 


 

Peace River Regional District

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2023-10-01