Bing has a picture of Emerald Lake in BC, with the description that it was discovered in 1882 by guide Tom Wilson, who accidentally stumbled upon the lake by gathering horses that had gotten away.
To put it correctly, go to the Wikipedia entry and it says: " The first non-indigenous person to set sight on Emerald Lake was Canadian guide Tom Wilson, who stumbled upon it by accident in 1882. A string of his horses had gotten away, and it was while tracking them that he first entered the valley."
As to Wilson's naming of lakes. it turns out that the entry for Lake Louise says: "However, this was not the first time Wilson had named a lake 'Emerald'. Earlier that same year he had discovered another lake which he had given the same name, and that name even appeared briefly on the official map. This first lake however, was shortly renamed Lake Louise.
What made Wilson's string "get away?" That seems like the horses were not happy to be with him. I don't have any personal experience with horses, so I take that from the horse.com as it says that horses often run away to avoid an unpleasant experience. And were these domesticated horses going feral or were they wild species being tamed? Supposedly, wild horses went extinct in North America 11,000 years ago. Mustangs are considered an "invasive" species and not from North America. Scientists argue otherwise - that despite the local extinction, it is the same species of horse that was in Europe, with the same genetic lineage. This has been proven by The Original Horse Project . So we might never find out about feral vs wild.
We can start to correct our historical writings and acknowledge the original Indigenous name of Emerald Lake. It is Rainbow Lake.
And Lake Louse? What was its original name? It was first named Horâ Juthin Îmne (translating to lake of little fishes) by Stoney First Nations people that were the first inhabitants of the area. In 1882 a Stoney First Nations person led a Canadian railway worker named Tom Wilson to the lake.
