Harrison Hot Springs

[Dave Robertson]

The BC Worlds conference up there last weekend was a rewarding experience.  
It was interesting to be asked to look at Stolo people's use of shorthand 
Jargon, and to discover that there was a great deal of it.  

I enjoyed hearing John Moffatt (University College of the Fraser Valley) 
talking about "That Crazy White Man's Language" (Jargon), and its role in 
BC identity.  

Other sessions that I caught included one about early European-Nuuchahnulth 
contacts.  Something I learned from that was that early sources often 
indiscriminately apply the label "Straits of Juan de Fuca" to the larger 
waterway including the Strait of Georgia.  They also sometimes imply that 
any Native village was Neah Bay, apparently.  These factors would mean 
you've got to think carefully about which locations and groups of people 
are being discussed in some of the early sources.  

It was also good to meet at least one of you in person for the first time.  

I have a question that's inspired by the Harrison Hot Springs Resort's 
promotional literature.  Does any of you know of an original source for the 
claim that that location was called "Waum Chuck" in Jargon by First Nations 
people?  

There are very few purely Jargon place names that were actually used in 
Jargon, as far as I've determined.  And the Halq'emeylem Salish name for 
the place, Kwals, appears to mean about the same thing, "boiling water".  
But this location at the south end of Harrison Lake was an important 
transportation depot at the right point in history.  It was on the Douglas 
Trail, an early route to the goldfields.  

So I'm interested to know the story behind "Waum Chuck".  

--Dave R.

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