Murtle River - Discovery and Naming

Discovery and Naming

There are no records about the Murtle River being known by First Nations. The river was discovered by Joseph Hunter, a surveyor working for the future Canadian Pacific Railway, on May 25, 1874. Hunter's expedition rafted across the Clearwater River near The Horseshoe, headed east for about 13 km, and reached the Murtle River upstream from Majerus Falls. He named the river and, a few days later, Murtle Lake for his birthplace in Scotland, Milton of Murtle, near Aberdeen. Between 1872 and 1881, about 20 survey parties fanned out across British Columbia trying to find the best route for the new railway between Yellowhead Pass in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. Three survey parties visited what is now Wells Gray Park. When the more southern Kicking Horse Pass was chosen instead in 1881, all of these meticulously examined routes across the Canadian Cordilleran, including Hunter's, were abandoned. Only three place names in the Park recognize those 10 wasted years of surveys: Murtle River & Lake, Mahood River & Lake, and Marcus Falls. The latter two refer to James Adam Mahood and Marcus Smith, leaders of two other railway surveys during the 1870s.

It was 40 years before the Murtle River area came under professional scrutiny again, this time by land surveyor Robert Lee. In 1913, he laid out 160 acre lots beside the Murtle River and discovered Helmcken Falls. He was so impressed with the waterfall that he wrote a letter from his remote camp to Sir Richard McBride, British Columbia's premier, asking "may I name the river the McBride River and the falls the McBride Falls in honor of the distinguished Premier of British Columbia?" This ignored the prior naming of the Murtle River by Joseph Hunter. Three weeks later, Lee received a reply of one sentence from the Premier which stated that the waterfall was to be called Helmcken Falls. The McBride River was not mentioned, so Lee thereafter put Murtle River on his maps.