Kamloops: Peter or Paul and the legacy of David Thompson

Photo: Contributed

A view over the city of Kamloops in 1910. My thanks to Sharon Blaney and Patricia Kellogg for their assistance in locating a suitable photo site and for? helping to identify streets and? other physical features in the archival and current images. ( Item: Out P1196. View of Kamloops. It is in the public domain and was sourced on-line through a link posted by the City of Vancouver Archives.)

Photo: Terry Robertson

Kamloops in 2023

Two geographic features dominate the panoramic view of Kamloops, taken in 1910 (top photo) and in the bottom image, taken in the spring of 2023. They are Mount Paul and the Thompson Rivers.

The mountain, with its two prominent domes that loom over the city at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers, is commonly referred to as Mount Paul. However, the higher of the two summits is Peter Peak, recorded as 1,080 metres above sea level. The more westerly dome, Paul Peak, is only 830 metres high.

So, when most people point to the summit of what they call Mount Paul, they are actually identifying the top of what should more properly be called Mount Peter. That’s the technical nomenclature as I understand it, but local common use of names often trumps official geographic designations.

While one can only imagine that it was some unknown religious pioneer cleric who named the two prominent local peaks after a couple of biblical apostles, the provenance of the name of the river passing through Kamloops is well documented.
The Thompson River was named by fur treader and explorer Simon Fraser for his friend and colleague, master surveyor and map maker extraordinaire, David Thompson.

On his daring dash down the river that now bears his name, Fraser erroneously thought the major river that joined the Fraser near the present day community of Lytton was the same one Thompson had recently discovered and was actively exploring and mapping its upper reaches.

That other river came to be known as the Columba River, whose drainage system was not part of the vast Thompson River system. Ultimately, the Columbia River system proved to be more extensive and more important financially than the Thompson system.

It is ironic that Thompson, the man who explored, surveyed and accurately mapped more of North America than any other explorer on this continent (some 4.9 million-square-kilometres), had his name attached erroneously to a river he did not discover, nor was it part of the 90,000 kilometre distance he covered in his explorations on foot, by horse and in a canoe.

Here are some additional items to take note of in the two photo images:

HH—There may be others, but the feature labeled “HH” on both photos is clearly a heritage home or building that has been re-finished on the exterior but has retained its original structure and shape.

WW—The original Woodwards building, located at the intersection of Victoria Street West and First Avenue, was reincarnated as the B.C. Lottery Corporation headquarters in the modern photo and labeled “LC” in that image.

There are probably many other interesting features visible in these photos that Kamloops residents will be able to point out. So, if you are familiar with the area and notice something that catches your eye, please email me your observations or corrections if I made any serious errors.

It can be tricky identifying and labelling streets, especially on archival photos, as roads can shift considerably—or even disappear completely in a blink of an historical eye.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.