British Columbia Place Names

Elephant Crossing, Houdini Needles, Miniskirt, Billy Whiskers Glacier.There are just a handful of the many colourful names you will come across in this newest edition of British Columbia Place Names, which has been expanded to cover some 2,400 places acros sthe province. This BC classic and its predecessor, 1001 British Columbia Place Names, together have sold over 29,000 copies. British Columbia Place Names is truly the work of a lifetime. The authors, Philip and Helen Akrigg, have spent more than forty years researching BC place names, hunting through archives in Canada, the United States, and Britain, and making extensive field trips across the entire province to interview informants and view sites. The result is a marvellous book filled with remarkable historical facts, interesting anecdotes, and brief biographical accounts of the characters for which the province’s towns, cities, rivers, lakes, mountains, and islands have become namesakes. Tickletoeteaser Tower, The Lecture Cutters, Why Not Mountain, Phyllis’s Engine. The list of intriguing names goes on. This book will be a source of fascination for browsers as well as an invaluable resource for historians. It should definately find a home on the bookshelves or in the glove compartment of anyone with an interest in BC history. Philip Akrigg was for many years professor of English at the Univeristy of British Columbia. Helen Akrigg also taught at UBC and is a past president of the British Columbia Historical Association.