Phillips Arm Strathcona Regional District, British Columbia

Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region. N. of Cordero Channel, Range 1 Coast Land District

Mapped Location

Phillips Arm: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on Phillips Arm

  • Feature Type: Place

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Phillips Arm

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

Name Description
Phillips Arm Official

 

Origin Notes and History of Phillips Arm

References to Phillips Arm that document the origin of its place name

Adopted 6 April 1950 on 92NW, as labelled on BC Lands' map 2D, 1919. Origin/significance not recorded.

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, file C.1.49  |  Province of British Columbia

Spelled "Philipps Arm" on British Admiralty Chart #580, 1862.

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

For a small, out-of-the-way inlet, Phillips Arm has seen a fair amount of bustle over the years. It was once a rich fishing area, home to Kwiakah people, a Kwakwala-speaking First Nation whose name means "to club". Then, in the mid-1890s, came the prospectors, who turned the inlet into a hotbed of activity second only to Texada Island in the region. Dozens of claims were staked along the shoreline and beside the Phillips River, which flows southwest through Phillips Lake into the head of the arm. Several gold mines were established, the largest of which was the Doratha Morton, on Fanny Bay, which processed ore onsite with cyanide to extract the precious metal. A large forestry camp was located on the inlet in the 1970s, with a post office that operated 1973-82. In the early 1990s some innovative dirigible logging was done in the vicinity. A decade later, aquaculture operations were flourishing on the arm. But nobody, unfortunately, seems to know who Phillips was.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, pp. 459-460.  |  Province of British Columbia

 

Strathcona Regional District

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2023-10-01