Town of Princeton Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, British Columbia

Town - A populated place with legally defined boundaries, incorporated as a town municipality under the provincial Municipal Act. At confluence of Similkameen and Tulameen Rivers, between Hope and Penticton, Yale Division Yale Land District

Mapped Location

Town of Princeton: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on Town of Princeton

  • Feature Type: Incorporated

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Town of Princeton

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

Name Description
Town of Princeton Official

 

Origin Notes and History of Town of Princeton

References to Town of Princeton that document the origin of its place name

Princeton (Post Office & Railway Station) adopted 6 October 1936 on Geological Survey sheet 421A. Incorporated as a Village Municipality 11 September 1951. Re-incorporated as a Town Municipality 21 September 1978. Boundary amendment effective 19 May 1993, gazette date 22 July 1993.

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

"The name Princeton was given to this place by Governor Douglas during his visit to the Similkameen Valley in 1863 [sic], and was doubtless suggested by the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada in that year." (11 October 1905 letter from Princeton postmaster Ernest Waterman)

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Chief Geographer's Place Name Survey, 1905 (letters from BC Postmasters to James White, Canada's Chief Geographer)  |  Province of British Columbia

Labelled "Princetown" on Epner's "Map of the Gold Regions in British Columbia" (1862); labelled "Princeton" on Palliser's "A general map of the route in British North America" (1865), and on Alexander Caulfield Anderson's manuscript (1876); mentioned in G.M. Dawson's Progress Report 1877-78 as "Princeton or Vermilion Forks". Anderson also recorded the following names for this site, so-labelled on Lecount's map of the Gold Regions on the Fraser River compiled from Anderson's notes (original held in Surveyor General vault, Tray 2, Original maps): Zoch-a-meen, Klot-a-meen, Red Earth Fork. 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

Close to here, on the banks of the Tulameen River, is an outcropping of red ochre, prized by the Indians for face paint. This deposit accounts for the early names of "Vermilion Forks" and "Red Earth Forks" given to the settlement which grew up near the junction of the Tulameen and Similkameen Rivers. It was also known as "Similkameen" and "Allison's". The name of Princeton dates from 1860 when Governor Douglas gave this name to the new townsite which had been laid out below the forks. Douglas chose this name in honour of the Prince of Wales (later Edward II) who had visited eastern Canada that year. "Princetown" is a not infrequent early spelling of the name.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997  |  Province of British Columbia

 

Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2023-10-01