Alaska-Yukon Place Names by James W. Phillips

Author:James W. Phillips [Phillips, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRAVEL / United States / West
ISBN: 9781941890035
Publisher: Epicenter Press
Published: 2016-05-01T07:00:00+00:00

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Jackfish Lake (YT). So named because the lake is heavily populated with “jack,” a local nickname for northern pike, a long-snouted, many-toothed game fish. Many other lakes and streams in the Northland bear faunal names attesting to their abundance of trout, grayling, whitefish, and the five species of Pacific salmon. [See Kluane Lake.]

Jackson Island (SCA). Island in Cordova Bay honors Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson, who served as U.S. general agent for education in Alaska from 1885 until 1906. The Reverend Mr. Jackson first visited the territory in 1877 to set up schools and missions for both Indians and Eskimos; seeing that the natives’ caribou herds were dwindling, he initiated a program of importing reindeer from Siberia, which thus provided natives with a food- and hide-producing industry. [See Teller.]

Jack Wade Junction (IA). Junction on the Taylor Highway—north to Eagle, south to Tetlin Junction on the Alaska Highway—takes its name from a nearby, and now virtually abandoned, mining camp named for a prospector ca. 1900.

Jago Spit, JAY-goh (AA). Name of the point on the Beaufort Sea’s south coast honors Lieutenant Jago of the H.M.S. Enterprise, which explored the region while on a search expedition, 1851-54 for Sir John Franklin.

Jake’s Corner (YT). Name of the settlement at the junction of the Alaska Highway (Milepost 866) with the Atlin-Tagish-Carcross Loop Road has two possible sources. The “official” version is that the community was named for a Captain Jacobson, USA Engineers, who supervised construction of that sector of the old Alcan Highway. However, local residents contend the title predates the Alcan Highway and takes its name from that of a Teslin Indian, Jake Jackson, who frequently camped in the area on treks to Carcross.

Japonski Island, juh-PAWN-skee (SEA). This small island in Sitka Sound derives its name from a Russian word pertaining to “Japanese,” because it was occupied in 1805 by shipwrecked Japanese sailors.

Jette, Mount (SEA). The peak straddling the Alaska-Canada border in the Saint Elias Mountains was named by the USC&GS in 1908 to honor Sir Louis Jette, a member of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal of 1903. A former Supreme Court judge, Jette was lieutenant governor of the Province of Quebec at the time of the international boundary commission and subsequently was chief justice of the province. [See Alverstone, Mount.]

Johns Hopkins Glacier (SEA). Name of this glacier in Glacier Bay National Monument honors the university in Baltimore. [See Columbia Glacier.]

Johnson’s Crossing (YT). The oft-printed version of the origin of this community’s name claims that it honors a USA engineering officer who selected the site for the Alcan Highway bridge across the Teslin River. However, local residents contend the name commemorates a Teslin Indian, George Johnston, who operated a ferry at the site during construction of the bridge.

Johnstone Point (SCA). The original descriptive name, Cabo Frio, meaning “cold cape,” assigned by the Spanish in 1779 was superseded in 1879 when George Davidson, USC&GS, decided to honor Master James Johnstone of the Vancouver expedition’s H.M.S. Chatham. [See Alexander, Point; Davidson Mountains; Whidbey Passage.]

Juneau, JOO-noh (SEA). The Indians’

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