Talk:Interior Mountains

What an odd page...
As a former resident of this part of B.C. (Kelowna, Vernon, Lumby, Armstrong), we called it The Interior, not "Interior Mountains". In fact, we were talking about the valleys where we lived, not the mountains, but nevertheless, the term "Interior Mountains" is not used in the region.

If you want to be geographical in your descriptions then you should be talking about mountain ranges because B.C. is characterised by a series of north-south ranges from the Coastal Range to the Rockies at the edge of the Prairies. Between each range are north-south valleys named by the river which drains them. There are a couple of east-west faults cutting across SOME of these ranges, i.e. the Fraser River valley and the Thompson River valley. The only thing that distinguishes these so-called Interior Mountains is the fact that they include all mountain ranges except the Coastal Range.

I suggest that the page be renamed to B.C. Mountain ranges and that it explain the north-south character of them. It should also include the Nicola Plateau even though it is not a mountain range per se.


 * There is no officially-named Nicola Plateau, although there is the Nicola Valley aka the Nicola Country; the name for the plateau in that area is the Thompson Plateau, which as you can see already has an article.Skookum1 20:19, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

A reasonable alternate approach would be to rename it Interior Region if the intent is to describe more than the geography.
 * Just to note that the article British Columbia Interior is the Interior Region" article, but NB capitalizing "Region" is not usually part of hte formula and is impossible to cite; in fact, it's been difficult to get other WPCan editors used to the idea that "the Interior" is typically capitalized in British Columbia, although many published works from outside the province make a point of not capitalizing it on the premise that it's not a proper name, or so they think; even Barman's The West Beyond the West does so, including in combinations like "central interior" which if you're from BC look, well, downright odd. Canadian media and acadmie styleguides do not take into account, or dismiss, traditional British Columbia spelling conventions, including "the Island" and "the Coast" and others.....In any case I'll add hatnote here directing people looking for "the Interior" to the British Columbia Interior article, which post facto might have been better titled "Interior of Briitsh Columbia" but part of my reason for not making it that way in the first place was to emphasize the need to capital-I "Interior".Skookum1 (talk) 03:45, 13 January 2009 (UTC)


 * See below for my reply to the same questions; of course the term "Interior Mountains" is not used in the Okanagan, as the Interior Mountains are from the Omineca Country northwards (well, nearer the Coast Mountains from the northwesternmost Chilcotin northwards...). It's an "official" name used by government geographers, which is why the title was chosen; I prefer "Northern Interior Mountains" and quite frankly I wish S. Holland or whomever had come up with a term to combine the Cassiars, Ominecas and Skeenas in one super-range, but no one ever did, other than "Interior Mountains".  Oh, and please sign your posts with four tildes, even if you don't have an account/username.Skookum1 20:15, 4 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Also, I've been putting off creating a page for "The Interior"; links for Interior currently go to Interior Plateau, which ain't right, and I patrol pages for usages of small-i interior where it should be capitalized (as most people from BC, and most newcomers here, don't realize that). I think the title of such an article will have to be "Interior of British Columbia" as just plain "Interior" or "The Interior" would seem to have to be a disambig page, or a ref to Wiktionary.Skookum1 20:19, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a great example page (Monashee Mountains) for one of B.C.'s Interior Mountain Ranges that could be followed for the other ones listed, although I question the level of detail in the list of ranges shown. Is there a point in drilling down to such a level of detail?

Also, even though there is excessive detail, the list does not include the Monashees, the Purcells, the Selkirks. Also, for some odd reason it excludes the Rockies although these are clearly an Interior Mountain range. Perhaps it pays too much attention to provincial borders. A page on geography (i.e. mountain ranges) should not worry that the Rocky Mountains are not wholly in B.C., or in Canada for that matter. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.152.136.95 (talk) 19:57, 4 January 2007 (UTC).

Well, whoever 81.152.136.95 is, what I can tell you is that "Interior Mountains" is an "official" designation, created/enshrined by S. Holland in Landforms of British Columbia, a BC govt publication from the 1970s in most BC libraries (SFU has about 20 copies, at least), which sets out the various range defintions and their groupings. The Monashees, Purcells, and Selkirks are part of the Columbia Mountains, which also in some classifications includes the Cariboo Mountains as well as the Okanagan, Quesnel and Shuswap Highlands (nominally part of the Interior Plateau). The name "Interior Mountains" isn't meant to mean "mountains in the Interior"; I prefer the term Northern Interior Mountains but no one else that I know of has used it, except in casual speech/writing; why the Hazelton Mountains aren't included in the Coast Mountains I'm not sure, also, but all mountain range classifications being built here are based in S. Holland, which is also used by http://bivouac.com as well as http://www.peakbagger.com, the two main online "authorities" (and I was the one who built most of bivouac's system, in fact, using S. Holland). I'll add a qualifier to the intro that the name does not mean "mountains in the Interior", but is a name for the mountains of the Northern Interior (everything north of the Nechako/McGregor Plateaus, but excluding the Northern Rockies).Skookum1 20:12, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Name issue
It was pointed out in an edit by User:Black Tusk that the two terms in the lede are "unofficial", which is to say they do not appear in either BCGNIS or CGNDB, though I amended that to "semi-official" as the mames were coined bya government geographer in a work which is the basis for the official toponymy in BCGNIS. Myself, I would have preferred "Northern Interior Mountains" to avoid confusions of exactly the kind above, but Holland chose to use "Interior Mountains" between the two possible terms and at bivouac.com we decided to follow suit with that, and that has been also followed by www.peakbagger.com. It's for all this that I included a ref/footnote explaining the coining of the terms and their semi-official nature. They are not (as yet) gazetted names although all their component parts are and, as I said in teh footnote, Holland's work is t eh basis for the official toponymy. Various other terms in that book are also not found in BCGNIS, and many in BCGNIS are also not found in CGNDB....(and vice-versa).Skookum1 (talk) 03:45, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Kispiox Range & Eaglenest Range
I'm pretty sure this is a subrange of the Nass Ranges and should be sectioned/bulleted as such, I'll look into it; similarly the Eaglenest Range is, I think, on the Spatsizi Plateau.Skookum1 (talk) 02:56, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Parks integrated into list
Looking at the huge parks list, I'm thinking it might be useful to move them individually into the ranges/plateaus where they are located; if they bridge two or more, they should appear in each.Skookum1 (talk) 02:56, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Stikine Plateau
In Holland's index, this is a subchapter of Interior Mountains, and of course if pretty much more mountains than it is plateau; the Tagish Highland I think doesn't belong here, I'll work on that in the next edits.Skookum1 (talk) 03:00, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Yukon
The Interior Mountains are most likely in the Yukon as well if the Cassiar Mountains lie in the Yukon. Black Tusk (talk) 03:25, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
 * The note in the introduction should be change to mention southern Yukon as well; all infomation on this page should reflect the whole mountain system, not just the British Columbia portion. Black Tusk (talk) 21:10, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Elevation
What is the highest point of the Interior Mountains? I searched for the highest point while searching and I looked through all of the subrange articles but not all have the highest point in the infoboxes. The discription about most its summits being unnamed, mostly uninhabited and undeveloped probably explains why I can't find the highest point. But even if it dosen't have an established name I would think there would be at least an unofficial name, due to the huge size of the region. Black Tusk (talk) 15:51, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I think it's Thudaka Peak, at least insofar as what's north of Hwy 16/Rose Lake Pass, i.e. there might be something higher in the Hazeltons south of that line, but I'm pretty sure the "prominence zones" work that way - "Thudaka goes to Ulysses, Ulysses goes to Ratz, Ratz goes to Fairweather" as I remember it, though there was some dispute how Selwyn fit in there and which sequence/prominence col applied. I'll open up my Holland PDF in a bit and look it up, I'm sure he says what the highest in the IM is in that section, and will provide the page ref.Skookum1 (talk) 16:22, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll add Thudaka in the infobox for now because that was my suggestion as well. Black Tusk (talk) 00:29, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Mountain template
I am willing to create a template for the Interior Mountains and its subranges if needed. A large mountain range like the Interior Mountains should have at least one mountain template like the Coast Mountains, Canadian Rockies, etc.... Black Tusk (talk) 18:26, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok, but remember that Holland classifies the Stikine Plateau as part of the Interior Mountains - understandable given the mountainous nature of the plateau - and also the Tagish Highland etc...and the Hzzelton Mountains of coures....I was wondering about this in relation to the Interior Plateau, also, because of the many ranges within it e.g. the Cameslfoot, Marble and Clear primarily, and the fact that the McGregor Plateau is largely more mountainous than plateau-like. This is why I suggested the subrange divisions within Pacific Ranges - so many items over such a large area....the Boundary and Kitimat Ranges don't have as many clearly-defined subareas/subranges as to the Interior Mountains or Interior Plateau....and I've been wondering lately ,as Holland does use the name, just not as his chapter heading or using the alt-name Northern Interior Mountains to clear up obvious confusions about "mountain ranges in the Interior".  I guess when I'm in the mood I'll start List of landforms of British Columbia and lay out the hierarchies with bullets; keep it up with the templates; I just htink some more organization than mere category and alphabeitzation is required to make them usable and not just a mass of links....and maybe at WP:Mountains at some point I'll bring up a discussion of Interior Mountains vs Northern Interior Mountains...and I've been meaning to get at Interior System and its sisters (Eastern and Western)....for various private reasons I'm going to take a wiki-sabbatical sometime soon, gotta deal with life/career/mobility, though it usually takes me a while to pull up wiki-stakes as i've always got so many things on the boil here...mostly of my own making LOL...Skookum1 (talk) 18:57, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I suppose one reason Holland didn't use "Northern Interior Mountains" is because the Hazeltons go so far south into the Central Interior, and the southern Ominecas are also potentially seen in that light; maybe that's a bad idea and I'll leave well enough alone....most people seem to thnk that the Hazeltons are part of the Coast Mountains; that's one thing Wikipedia is for/ to clear up such misconceptions, including their use in academic journals/publications hwich don't reference the official toponymy; just because someone else makes mistakes doesn't mean Wikipedia has to cite every single one as a reilable source and alternate usage (I think you remember some of what went on at Talk:Western Cordillera (North America).....Skookum1 (talk) 18:59, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, IMO it does seem odd for the Hazeltons to be part of the Interior Mountains because they seem to have more relationships with the Coast Mountains. One of my confusions with this is Nisga'a Memorial Lava Beds Provincial Park. You added that park in Kitimat Ranges but Tseax Cone lies in the Hazelton Mountains, which is the source for the lava beds. In order to create a mountain template for "the Interiors" I think there should be more mountain articles created. Most articles in Category:Interior Mountains are mountain ranges..... Black Tusk (talk) 19:16, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * My mistake about the Lava Beds/ I was "on the fly" at the time and should ahve checked that....and don't forget the mountain articles are supposed to be in their subrange articles, i.e. the grandparent-range category isnt' present on a mountain page, only its parent mountain range. With the other ranges there's no fully comprehensive system of subranges taking in the whole range, other than Coast Mountains, with Kitimat/Boundary/Pacific as the subdivisions.  Category:Interior Mountains is in teh same "tier" as Category:Rocky Mountains, Category:Columbia Mountains, Category:Coast Mountains.  Other than named subrange-areas within the southern Pacific Ranges, the rest of that group like the Kitimat and Boundary Ranges do not have sub-ranges they can belong to, so that's why their categories have los of mountains in them; anything that's in Category:Coast Mountains that's also in Category:Pacific Ranges or one of its subcats it shouldn't be....All of the Interior Mountains are grouped into subgroups - the Stikine Plateau, and the Cassiars, Ominecas, Skeenas and Hazeltons.  It's interesting that Holland didn't extend teh defintion of the group south through the Rainbow Range and Chilcotin Ranges, but especially in the latter case it's hard to say exactly where the Chilcotin Ranges end and the main spine of the Pacific Ranges begin...Thing is with the Stikine Plateau especially, and the upper Skeena, there's all kinds of named mountains in the Interior Mountains, but there's also even more unnamed ones in the other ranges, particularly the Casiars/Stikines.  Same is true of the Kitimats....NB sub-templates for Category:Canadian Rockies are probably a good idae - Continental Ranges, Northern Rockies at least, but maybe Kootenay/Park/Front Ranges (the main subdivisions of hte Continental Ranges....).Skookum1 (talk) 20:13, 18 June 2009 (UTC)