McDame, also known originally as McDame Post or McDames Creek Post and also known as Fort McDame is an abandoned settlement in the Cassiar Country

Cassiar Country

The Cassiar Country, also referred to simply as the Cassiar, is one of the historical geographic regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia...

 of the Northern Interior of British Columbia

British Columbia Interior

The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as the Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver...

,

McDame got its name from McDame Creek

McDame Creek

McDame Creek is a creek located in the Cassiar Land District of British Columbia. The creek flows southeast into Dease River and is south of Good Hope Lake. The creek was discovered in 1874 by a prospector named Henry McDame. McDame Creek was mined for gold in the 1800s...

, which had been prospected in 1874 by Harry McDame

Harry McDame

Henry "Harry" McDame was a Bahamas-born prospector in the California and British Columbia gold rushes. He arrived in the Colony of British Columbia in 1858, along with many other blacks from California encouraged to move to the colony by Governor James Douglas and took up land near modern-day...

 (originally from the Bahamas, by way of California) and his partner John Giscome (originally from Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

; see Giscome Portage

Giscome Portage

The Giscome Portage was a portage between the Fraser River and Summit Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The south end of the portage is now the location of a heritage site, the Huble Homestead, which is located on the Fraser River, 40 km north of Prince George and 6 km off Highway...

). McDame Creek was the site of an 1877 find of a 72 ounce gold nugget

Gold nugget

A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate and grow the nuggets. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits where the gold-bearing veins or lodes are weathered...

 worth $1,300 (c.%52,000 today), which was the largest in British Columbia's history. A trading post located at the creek's confluence with the Dease River

Dease River

The Dease River flows through northwestern British Columbia, Canada and is a tributary of the Liard River. The river descends from Dease Lake, though its ultimate origin is in the headwater of Little Dease Creek at Snow Peak, approximately 50 km to the west of the lake...

, owned by Robert Sylvester, was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 in 1875 and remained in operation until closing in 1943, with the locality being abandoned by 1960. McDames Creek Indian Reserve No. 2

McDames Creek 2

McDames Creek 2 is a Statistics Canada census designation for what is properly known as McDames Creek Indian Reserve No. 2, which flanks both sides of the Dease River at its confluence with McDame Creek. See Harry McDame and McDame for name origin information...

is nearby.