Permanent Memorials

The Geological Survey of Canada's (GSC) "rock stars" were so famous they had towns, lakes, rivers and even mountains named after them.

William Logan, the GSC's "superstar" had lots of things named after him, including not one, but two mountains! Mount Logan in the Yukon is Canada's highest mountain, at 5,959 metres. The other Mount Logan stands 1,100 metres tall and is located on the Gaspé peninsula of Quebec. Logan didn't actually climb the Yukon's Mount Logan, but he did climb the one in Quebec in 1844. From its summit, he drew a picture of the mountain's many peaks while trying to keep his fingers from freezing.

Alfred Selwyn has a mountain named after him in British Columbia. Robert Bell has a river in the Yukon, as well as one in Ontario and another in Manitoba. Dawson City, the town at the centre of the Klondike gold rush, was named for George Dawson, who had surveyed the region and provided the maps that the gold prospectors used. Thanks to Joseph Tyrrell's lucky dinosaur find in June 1884, his name has become part of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta.

Newsworthy Nuggets

- Weloganite is a very rare igneous mineral that was named after William E. Logan. It was found in 1966 at the Francon Quarry near Montréal by GSC mineralogist Ann Sabina.

Sabinaite from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec
Source

- GSC mineralogist Ann Sabina has a mineral named after her. It is called sabinaite.