BCGNIS Query Results

Cortes Island Official Name

Feature Type: Island

Latitude: 50°07'00" Position at: CENTRE

Longitude: 124°59'00"

Gazetteer Map: 92K/2
Relative Location: Between Quadra and Redonda Islands, N end Strait of Georgia, Sayward Land District

Return all features within 5Km proximity View geographical name location on a 1:250K mapsheet

Cortes Island	Official Name
Feature Type:	Island
Latitude:	50°07'00"	Position at: CENTRE
Longitude:	124°59'00"
Gazetteer Map:	92K/2
Relative Location:	Between Quadra and Redonda Islands, N end Strait of Georgia, Sayward Land District
Return all features within 5Km proximity	View geographical name location on a 1:250K mapsheet

Related Mapsheets

92K/2 92K/3

Origin Notes and History

Adopted 31 December 1945 on C.3591, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 580, 1862 et seq, and on BC map 2C, 1919 et seq.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"Named in 1792 by the Spanish naval officers, Galiano and Valdes. Presumably after Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, as the next island to the southeastward is Hernando and the island to the westward, Mary (Marina). Cortes was born in 1485 and died near Seville 2 December 1547. He went from Spain to the New World in 1511, landing in Cuba...."
Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)