ODDS’N’SODS — Names of glaciers explained

While working at the Granduc mine at the Portal Camp in British Columbia in the 1960s, I was surrounded by the vast glaciers: Berenden, Frank Mackie, Little Salmon, Chicomen and the Leducs.

Upon viewing these majestic, centuries-old rivers of ice, I could not help but wonder who named them and why?

One day, while we were building the camp situated in the heart of the North Leduc and South Leduc Glaciers (with the Leduc River draining the waterflow from both, to the west to the Behm Canal), I received the answer to one of my queries.

The construction services had been contracted to numerous suppliers who frequently trafficked to the site to inspect the work. The camp was served by an airstrip constructed on the main flow of the North Leduc Glacier — an imposing mass of ice stretching for several miles in length, more than a mile wide and several thousands of feet deep.

The surface of the glacier was deeply scarred with crevices, except for the section where we maintained the ice-strip with a continuous operation of graders and tractors. The mountains on each side, worn into narrow rocky ridges by the glaciers’ movements, totally enclosed the site. It was on this day I welcomed Paul Cote to the area. Paul and I had graduated nearly two decades before from the same class at university. The plane landed smoothly on the ice surface following a short, half-hour trip from Stewart. Several passengers emerged and moved to the waiting Bombardier which would take them down to the camp. One passenger stood apart form the rest, apparently surveying the area and recovering his composure after the breathtaking trip over the great ice fields.

Eventually, I approached him and here was Paul. After a hearty handshake, Paul turned pensive and stood motionless. Finally he turned to me. “I am very impressed with the view and somewhat awestruck,” he said. “This is my first trip here, and did you know that my grandfather and Shorty Leduc surmounted these same ice fields to find a route to the Klondike? They rowed up the Behm Canal from Kitchekan and hiked up the Leduc River in 1898. The glacier and river were named after Shorty Leduc, following their journey.” I replied: “Paul, I can’t believe it.”

He continued in spite of my skepticism.

“I thought of their journey as I sat in the airplane and, in a few short hours, flew from Vancouver into this site. It took them weeks to make the 80-mile safari up the Behm Canal, followed by the 30-mile trek up the river and heaven knows how long to climb up on the glaciers.”

Paul then paused to absorb the overwhelming vastness of the site, no doubt contemplating the dauntless courage and rugged vitality of those pioneers who ventured into the wild unknown of this country in search of adventure, challenge and gold — pioneers who had set the stage for Paul and I that very day.

— S.J. Hunter is a retired mining engineer who resides in Vancouver.