This pass cuts through the Galton Range just north of the international border, east of the Kootenay River Valley.

The pass takes its name from the Galton Range.

In his report, Thomas Blakiston

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) was an English scientist, explorer and anthropologist. A cousin of Charles Darwin, he was one of the first to recognize how Darwin's theory of evolution was going to clash with theology.

Galton as a youth developed a passion for travel. He was taking medicine but when his father died he was left with sufficient fortune that he was free to indulge in his craving for travel. He wrote nine books and over 200 papers. They deal with many diverse subjects, including the use of fingerprints for personal identification, the correlation of calculus (a branch of applied statistics) - in both of which Galton was a pioneer - twins, blood transfusions, the art of travel in undeveloped countries, criminality and meteorology. He was also deeply concerned with improving standards of measurement. He was knighted in 1909 and died near London on January 17, 1911.