The Connelly Range is a subrange of the Hogem Ranges of the

Omineca Mountains The Omineca Mountains, also known as "the Ominecas", are a group of remote mountain ranges in the Boreal Cordillera of north-central British Columbia, Canada. They are bounded by the Finlay River on the north, the Rocky Mountain Trench (here fil ...

, located between Bear Lake and the headwaters of the

Omineca River Omineca River is a river of the North American boreal forest, in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows into the Williston Lake, and is part of the Peace River basin. It was originally a tributary of the Finlay River before the creation of ...

in northern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. As the Omineca is in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

drainage and Bear Lake that of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, the range is part of the Continental Divide. It includes a group of volcanic plugs, the largest of which is

The Thumb The Thumb is a region and a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan, so named because the Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. The Thumb area is generally considered to be in the Central Michigan region, east of the Tri-Cities and north of M ...

. The range's named derived from that of Fort Connelly, a Hudson's Bay Company outpost founded by James Douglas, later Governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, during his tenure with the North West Company in New Caledonia, of which Fort Connelly was at the northwestern edge of. Sources vary as to where it was, either at the outlet of the Bear Lake (i.e. at its northern end) or on an island along the eastern shore near Tsaytut Bay. The name Fort Connelly today is associated with the settlement of Bear Lake.

References

*
Connelly Range
in the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia * Omineca Mountains Omineca Country Great Divide of North America {{Canada-mountain-stub