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Mount McBeath (Alberta)

  • 2845 m (9,334ft)
  • Naming History
52.7628N -117.153W
Located in the Medicine Tent River Valley at the head of Ruby Creek

Province: Alberta
Park: Jasper
Headwater: Saskatchewan/Athabasca
Year Named: 1925
Named for: McBeath, Morrison (A member of Lord Southesk's party of 1859, Morrison McBeath was a tall Scot with a dark moustache and beard.)

Morrison McBeath, Toma, and La Grace were members of James Carnegie (Earl of Southesk)'s 1859 expedition that travelled from the Athabasca Valley to the Bow Valley. The mountains named in their honour lie in a row along the northeast side of the upper Medicine Tent River Valley just north of Southesk Pass. The Earl described how his men rode along the valley amid, "scenery of surpassing magnificence." After his men broke camp, "they formed a bright picture -all life, dash, rattle, and glitter, so grandly backgrounded by the stately rocks: ribbons streaming, guns swaying, whips flashing, gay colours sparkling in the sun; some approaching at a quick trot, others dashing after vagrant steeds, or urging the heavy-laden packhorses, who jogged along like elephants with castles on their backs." McBeath was a tall Scott who was the game keeper on the Earl's estate in Scotland. He had a dark moustache and beard, military belt and sword, and a red saddle blanket. Toma, massive, swarthy, and with black eyes that twinkled with humour was the Earl's personal attendant who he described as a, "most faithful and excellent fellow." La Grace was said to be an amusing old man who, "enlivened our halts after the weariest marches." He wore a purple shirt and with cap decorated with scarlet streamers and an ancient eagle's feather. [See James Carnegie biography]