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PLACE NAMES: Slocan

Slocan is one of the few First Nations place names in common use in our area.
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Slocan Lake is seen in a ca. 1905 postcard by Richard Trueman. (Greg Nesteroff collection)

One-hundred eightieth in an alphabetical series on West Kootenay/Boundary place names

Slocan is one of the few First Nations place names in common use in our area but also one of the most popular and versatile, based on the number of geographical features that have adopted it.

Officially it’s a village, railway point, two communities, two rivers, several lakes, a whirlpool, mountain, ridge, provincial historic site, and mining division.

Unofficially, it’s also a valley.

A few other Slocan-related names are no longer on the map, including Slocan Crossing, Slocan Junction, and Slocan Creek.

Slocan is the anglicized version of the Sinixt word slhu7kíń. Explorer John Palliser first recorded the Shlogan River on a map in 1859. Secondary sources attribute a wide variety of other spellings to him including shlocan, sloghan, schlocan, scholocan, slok-ken and shlokum.

In an 1865 letter, trail builder Edgar Dewdney called it slokén, while on an 1866 map, surveyor Walter Moberly wrote slocken. In the 1930s, ethnographer James Teit used sloke’n while Verne Ray went with slo’kan.

None of these sources provided a translation, but Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy, in their Lakes Indian Ethnography and History (1985) found three Sinixt informants — Mary Marchand, Julia Quintasket, and Joe Barr — who said slhu7kíń means “to pierce, strike on the head.”

According to Marchand, that referred to their ancestors’ practice of spearing salmon, which were once plentiful in the region. Bouchard and Kennedy added that slhu7kíń “is in fact derived from the Okanagan-Colville term lhum̀ín meaning ‘harpoon.” Prior to that, a variety of false and fanciful etymologies had been suggested:

The Kaslo Claim of May 12, 1893: “Kaslo and Slocan are Indian names and are bestowed in honor of ancient families of the Kootenays. They are proper names and have no interpretation.”

The Slocan Enterprise of Oct. 16, 1929: “Citizens of Slocan as well as other people of the district have recently become interested in the origin and meaning of the word Slocan … One of the suggestions was ‘bright waters.’”

• Fern Cooper writing in the Arrow Lakes News in December 1952: “Prospectors inquiring of some Indians as to directions to travel were informed, but they said Slo-Can-Go, meaning it was slow travelling in these parts. Thus Slocan was told how it got its name.” This bit of folklore gained quite a bit of traction, and even appears in Joy Kogawa’s acclaimed novel Obasan. Fern’s mother Phyllis, however, wrote in My Dad: The Family of Walter and Ada Clough (1986) that “Slocan is an Indian name meaning either ‘deep water’ or ‘stormy water.’”

• The Secwepemc word for frog is slleq̓wqнn̓, transcribed by John Mary Le Jeune in Studies on Shuswap (1925) as slok-ken. Clara Graham speculated in This Was the Kootenay (1963) that Slocan was derived from this word, and other sources followed suit.

For instance, Beautiful British Columbia Magazine, summer 1981: “If you forgot you were in the Slocan, you could find enough reminders as you cycle south: Slocan Lake, Slocan River, Slocan Park, Slocan City, South Slocan. Perhaps it’s all explained by the fact that Slocan meant frogs in the Indian language of the region. Then again, South Frogs?”

The Kootenaian, June 8, 1967: “The great Slocan got its name from a pioneer of the district by the same name.”

History of the West Kootenay, a report prepared by Joy Smith of the BC Parks Branch in 1974: “A more carefully documented source of Slocan credits the word to the Indian tribe known as the Sloghans, encountered by David Thompson during his explorations at the beginning of the 19th century.”

• Several sources were closer to the truth in suggesting Slocan meant “catch salmon.” They included Cecil Clark in a 1964 note contained in the A.G. Harvey papers at the BC Archives, Craig Weir writing in the Castlegar News of Nov. 29, 1973, and John Norris in Old Silverton (1985).

The earliest known use of the present spelling of Slocan was in Gilbert Malcolm Sproat’s Jan. 7, 1884 Report on Kootenay, published in the BC government sessional papers: “On the western side of this depression, particularly between the great Kootenay lake and Slocan Lake, or the Columbia River, the mountains form a broad mass … The Indians say there is a quantity of white pine on Slocan Lake, but that is a long way beyond the 6-mile reserve, the Slocan River itself being about 30 miles in length.”

Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at the several places that have adopted the name, including the Village of Slocan (nee Slocan City), Slocan Park, South Slocan, and Slocan Valley.

— With thanks to Peter Smith

Previous installments in this series

Introduction

Ainsworth

Alamo

Anaconda

Annable, Apex, and Arrow Park

Annable, revisited

Appledale

Applegrove, Appleby, and Appledale revisited

Argenta and Arrowhead

Aylwin

Bakers, Birds, and Bosun Landing

Balfour

Bannock City, Basin City, and Bear Lake City

Beasley

Beaton

Bealby Point

Bealby Point (aka Florence Park) revisited

Belford and Blewett

Beaverdell and Billings

Birchbank and Birchdale

Blueberry and Bonnington

Boswell, Bosworth, Boulder Mill, and Broadwater

Brandon

Brilliant

Brooklyn, Brouse, and Burnt Flat

Burton

Camborne, Cariboo City, and Carrolls Landing

Carmi, Cedar Point, Circle City, and Clark’s Camp

Carson, Carstens, and Cascade City

Casino and Champion Creek

Castlegar, Part 1

Castlegar, Part 2

Castlegar, Part 3

Christina Lake

Christina City and Christian Valley

Clubb Landing and Coltern

Cody and Champion Creek revisited

Champion Creek revisited, again

Columbia

Columbia City, Columbia Gardens, and Columbia Park

Comaplix

Cooper Creek and Corra Linn

Crawford Bay and Comaplix revisited

Crescent Valley and Craigtown

Davenport

Dawson, Deadwood, and Deanshaven

Deer Park

East Arrow Park and Edgewood

Eholt

English Cove and English Point

Enterprise

Erie

Evans Creek and Evansport

Falls City

Farron

Fauquier

Ferguson

Ferguson, revisited

Fife

Forslund, Fosthall, and Fairview

Fort Shepherd vs. Fort Sheppard, Part 1

Fort Shepherd vs. Fort Sheppard, Part 2

Fort Sheppard, revisited

Fraser’s Landing and Franklin

Fredericton

Fruitvale and Fraine

Galena Bay

Genelle

Gerrard

Gilpin and Glade

Gladstone and Gerrard, revisited

Glendevon and Graham Landing

Gloster City

Goldfields and Gold Hill

Grand Forks, Part 1

Grand Forks, Part 2

Granite Siding and Granite City

Gray Creek, Part 1

Gray Creek, Part 2

Gray Creek, revisited

Green City

Greenwood

Halcyon Hot Springs

Hall Siding and Healy’s Landing

Harrop

Hartford Junction

Hills

Howser, Part 1

Howser, Part 2

Howser, Part 3

Howser, Part 4

Hudu Valley, Huntingtdon, and Healy’s Landing revisited

Inonoaklin Valley (aka Fire Valley)

Jersey, Johnsons Landing, and Jubilee Point

Kaslo, Part 1

Kaslo, Part 2

Kaslo, Part 3

Kaslo, Part 4

Kettle River, Part 1

Kettle River, Part 2

Kinnaird, Part 1

Kinnaird, Part 2

Kitto Landing

Koch Siding and Keen

Kokanee

Kootenay Bay, Kraft, and Krestova

Kuskonook, Part 1

Kuskonook, Part 2

Kuskonook (and Kuskanax), Part 3

Labarthe, Lafferty, and Longbeach

Lardeau, Part 1

Lardeau, Part 2

Lardeau, Part 3

Lardeau, Part 4

Lebahdo

Lemon Creek, Part 1

Lemon Creek, Part 2

Lemon Creek, Part 3

Makinsons Landing and Marblehead

McDonalds Landing, McGuigagren, and Meadow Creek

Meadows, Melville, and Miles’ Ferry

Midway

Mineral City and Minton

Mirror Lake and Molly Gibson Landing

Montgomery and Monte Carlo, Part 1

Montgomery and Monte Carlo, Part 2

Montrose and Myncaster

Nakusp, Part 1

Nakusp, Part 2

Nashville

Needles

Nelson, Part 1

Nelson, Part 2

Nelson, Part 3

Nelson, Part 4

Nelson, Wash.

Nelway and New Galway

New Denver, Part 1

New Denver, Part 2

Niagara

Oasis and Oatescott

Ootischenia

Oro

Park Siding and Pass Creek

Passmore

Paterson

Paulson

Perry Siding

Phoenix

Pilot Bay

Pingston

Playmor Junction

Poplar and Porcupine

Porto Rico and Pottersville

Poupore, Powder Point, and Power’s Camp

Procter, Part 1

Procter, Part 2

Queens Bay, Rambler, and Raspberry

Remac and Renata

Retallack

Rhone and Rideau

Riondel

Ritaville, Riverside I, Riverside II, and Rivervale

Robson and Rock Creek

Rosebery and Ross Spur

Rossland, Part 1

Rossland, Part 2

St. Leon and Rosebery, revisited

Salmo

Salmon Rapids

Sandon, Part 1

Sandon, Part 2

Sayward

Seaton

Sheep Creek

Shields, Shirley, and Shoreholme

Shoreacres

Shutty Bench and Six Mile

Silverton