Port Douglas Fraser Valley Regional District, British Columbia

Locality - A named place or area, generally with a scattered population of 50 or less. E side Lillooet River, just N of N end Harrison Lake, New Westminster Land District

Mapped Location

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

 

Information

General information on Port Douglas

  • Feature Type: Place

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Port Douglas

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

Name Description
Port Douglas Official

 

Origin Notes and History of Port Douglas

References to Port Douglas that document the origin of its place name

Previously adopted as "Douglas", as labelled on Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia, BC map 2B, 1914. Name changed to Port Douglas (settlement) 3 April 1959 on 92G, as labelled on Gustavus Epner's 1862 Map of the Gold Regions of BC. Form of name changed to Port Douglas (community) 9 September 1925. Form of name changed to Port Douglas (locality) 29 November 1984 by Ottawa [no record of change in BC files.]

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

Labelled "Port Douglas" on Epner's 1862 Map of the Gold Regions of BC, but identified as just "Douglas" on accompanying index in margin ("New Westminster to Douglas...95 miles").

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

Named for Sir James Douglas, Governor of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, who - confronted with the all-but-impassible Fraser Canyon above Yale - sponsored contruction of an overland route to access the Cariboo gold fields utilizing the HBC-located trail from the north end of Harrison Lake via Pemberton, Anderson and Seton Lakes to Cayoosh (Lillooet). From 1858 to 1965, Port Douglas, with hotels, stores, wagon-makers, sawmill & shipping facilities, thrived as the southern terminus for this first route to the Cariboo goldfields. Douglas Post Office was opened 19 August 1859, W.H. Franklyn, postmaster; post office was closed March or April 1867. By then the Cariboo Wagon Road from Fort Yale to Lillooet had been completed, and miners and provisioners abandoned Douglas and the Harrison Lake route. The Victoria Colonist newspaper carried the final advertisement for a hotel at Douglas in August 1866, identified a single resident in a November 1874 article, and in September 1898 reported that "historic Fort [sic] Douglas" had been destroyed by fire. Logging operations have headquartered here at various times since WW II. According to Mr. Simmons, Water Rights Branch, who visited the area in 1955, Port Douglas has a store, school, church, Imperial Oil tanks, a logging camp (about 30 people) and a total population of about 100, plus a docking facility for the thrice-weekly Harrison Lake ferry run. By 1997, the Government Agent at Chilliwack and BC Forest Service at Squamish advised that there are only 2 or 3 (family?) groups living at Port Douglas. See also T.W. Patterson's "Ghost Towns & Mining Camps of British Columbia," Langley, 1980, for photographs and excerpts from early letters.

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 December [1858], Douglas was able to report that the townsite, named after himself, had been laid out and seventy lots were occupied. Today there is only a logging depot here."

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

Ptékvl's is the Ucwalmícwts name - the language of the Lower Lillooet people - for today's Port Douglas. The village formerly located here was call nkenq (June 2007 advice from Maurice DePaoli, Cultural Researcher and Heritage Resources Advisor for In-SHUCK-ch Nation.) [Pronunciation and origin information to follow.]

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
included with note  |  Province of British Columbia

 

Related Catalog Titles

A Bibliography for Port Douglas, Fraser Valley Regional District, British Columbia

History of Harrison Hot Springs and Port Douglas area healing waters by Belle Rendall, Harrison Lake Historical Society

Title Cover Image

46 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

CIRC [ 1 ]
History · 1st Edition · Harrison Lake Historical Society, Harrison Lake, B.C., 1981, 1974
Related Catalog Items: Port Douglas · Harrison Hot Springs · Village of Harrison Hot Springs · Fraser Valley Regional District

 


 

Fraser Valley Regional District

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2023-09-30