Talk:The Barrier

Rubble Creek boulder field

Almost inserted mention of this but couldn't work it in comfortably without too much work; it's late. But when you're in Garibaldi, or just north of it along the highway, the presence of teh Rubble Creek boulder field is a reminder why Garibaldi got evacuated; it was a very controversial thing, hotly debated and loudly condemend at the time.

First Nations community at Water Tank

Water Tank is more or less where Pinecrest is now; so named for obvious reasons, top of the grade for the old steam locomotives, or at least the worst part of it. According to OldManRivers there was a joint Lil'wat-Skwxwu7mesh community here until it was wiped out by a landslide....makes me wonder if it was a Barrier landslide, and if it was the Barrier or what it was; not sure if the village he's tlaking about was Watertank; I know of it from Chubb Pascal's old columns in the local rag - no, not Chubb, geez I wish I could remember this guy's name...Clarence maybe; so bad it was great; anyway hopefully OMR can add some Skwxwu7mesh aspects to the Barrier, if any, and fill in or de-confirm the story/notion that it was the Barrier's letting go in the 1850s that destroyed aforesaid village.Skookum1 (talk) 07:04, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

There appears to be other areas in the Garibaldi area notable for landslides. There's a huge debris fan at the mouth of the Cheekye River just north of Brackendale called the Cheekye Fan. Garibaldi itself appears to have the landslide source. --Black Tusk (talk) 03:50, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Steep mountainsides by definition are steep because things are always fallin' off them; coming from deep mountain country as I do; Highway 99 along Highway Sound is a case in point, one big wall of rotten rock with a series of debris chutes otherwise known as creeks. the native village OMR was talking about may not be Watertank, I'm not sure where exactly it was, somewhere south of Alta Lake; nowhere around Pinecrest for a mountaisde to fall on them, y'see; maybe it was Garibaldi townsite/Rubble Creek, but given any knowledge of a vanished village - which maybe it's true the railway resort people didn't know about when they made it the main "town" in the rail corridor (such as it was), but given Rubble Creek it was maybe a stuipd place to put a town in the first place. Any geottechnical data from the building of the railway, sadly, would be in the fonds of Foley, Welch * Stewart and I don't think they made it into the provinclal archives but like a lot of private company records have been destroeyd...I used to work for DoH in Lillooet and wound up being given some avalanche maps of the Duffey Lake Road and the Bridge River Road/Road 40; rock chutes, snow chutes, one after the other. Kinda scary as often what can fall on you you can't actually see from the road; as with Howe Sound....Skookum1 (talk) 04:07, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

whenever I drive past Frank, Alberta I"m always sadly struck by how ironic it was to build a town out away from the mountains, only to have the only mountain in twenty miles be the one that fell right on you....Skookum1 (talk) 04:19, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:The Barrier/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Volcanoguy (talk · contribs) 01:09, 1 February 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: A.Cython (talk · contribs) 06:44, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

I will review this one as part of the GA backlog drive. A.Cython(talk) 06:44, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

I enjoyed reading about a geological feature in west of Canada with a cool name. Overall, the article is well written, sourced, and structured. It should get the GA status once some minor issues are ironed out. I provide my comments below. A.Cython(talk) 19:21, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

@Volcanoguy If you feel that you have finished with changes, please ping me to read it one more time and conclude the review, assuming there are no pending issues.A.Cython(talk) 03:41, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Various

• No edit wars
• Neutral
• No copyright violations; Earwig's Copyvio Detector gives 51.9%, but it flags quotes.

Figures

There are a couple of inconsistencies in the photos, please fix them or remove the figures.

• File:GaribaldiPP-TheBarrier.jpg: the source and author link to dead pages, can you update the info?

  How does having dead pages make this file not usable? It still has an appropriate license that was reviewed and confirmed in 2014. Volcanoguy 23:59, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  [AC] We need to know from where the photos came from. How are we going to judge whether the justification is applied correctly? For example, has a source at flickr, where the licence of the photo can be checked. It is quite possible someone to upload a copyrighted photo on Wikicommons. If we cannot verify from where they come from they are easily challenged and removed; this happens a regular basis. After a google image search, I could not locate it, and internet archive was no help either.

  I think having only one panorama is enough anyway so I decided to remove it. Volcanoguy 16:14, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

• File:RockSlide 1200W.jpg: has as a source the wikicommons page itself. Please fix/update this.

  I'm not sure what you want me to do here. Volcanoguy 23:59, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  [AC] I looked into google images search and found no other location of the particular image. All other sites refer to the wikipedia version, e.g., and . As with the other image, we need to make sure that these pictures are not copyrighted. So we need to perform this exercise.

  This image appears to have originally been uploaded onto Wikipedia and then uploaded onto Commons. Volcanoguy 16:01, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

[AC] Thus, I will assume this is good enough for both figures but note that this won't fly at FA level as the standards are higher.

I've added File:The Barrier 1983.jpg to the article, which had a dead source link but I was able to fix it. Volcanoguy 16:35, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Also added File:Barrier Lake.jpg. Volcanoguy 17:23, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

They look great!A.Cython(talk) 21:09, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Prose

• geological history exists. "exists" → "exist"

  Done. Volcanoguy 20:29, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• In 1855–1856, The Barrier "The Barrier" → "the Barrier" (avoid capitalization wherever possible, see MOS:THECAPS, apply to the whole article for consistency)

  I disagree; "The Barrier" is a proper name (i.e. "The" is part of the name). Volcanoguy 20:18, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  Some of the sources that you provided have "the Barrier", e.g., by Andrée Blais-Stevens, Landslide Hazards and their mitigation along the sea to sky corridor, British Columbia. Anyhow, I am not here to have a dispute over this. So can you provide three of the most representative sources that use capital "T". This is for posterity reasons. Thanks. A.Cython(talk) 20:35, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  "The Barrier" is an official name per BC Geographical Names. Volcanoguy 20:44, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  From a quick look of the sources, I cannot determine whether there is a naming consensus exists. Either way, I will assume good faith and accept the nominator's position. For the record:

  Sources that does not use capital "t"

  • Edward M. Burwash also does not uses capital.
  • Braden Dupuis
  • Google Maps uses without "the" meaning it is not part of the name

  Sources that do use capital "T"

  • Whadcoat, S.K., McDougall, S.
  • Melanie C. Kelman a and Alexander M. Wilson
  • Leslie Anthony
  • Moore and Mathews, The Rubble Creek landslide, southwestern British Columbia A.Cython(talk) 21:10, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• Garibaldi Lake which add comma before "which"

  Done. Volcanoguy 20:54, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• The Barrier where add comma before "where" (also avoid unnecessary capitalization, see MOS:THECAPS)

  Added comma. Volcanoguy 21:42, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• andesite and basalt add comma before "and"
• four lateral lava lobes, each of which were either "lobes, each of which was" or "lobes, which were"

  Done. Volcanoguy 21:08, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• Rubble Creek valley where add comma before "where"
• snow free add a dash

  Done. Volcanoguy 20:25, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• downstream where add comma
• Cheakamus Valley where add comma
• Highway 99 where add comma before "where"
• The Barrier which was add comma before "which" (also avoid unnecessary capitalization, see MOS:THECAPS)

  Added comma. Volcanoguy 21:00, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• September and November add comma before "and"
• tectonic or add comma
• stop or add comma
• The Barrier was the first recognized ice-marginal lava flow in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt and was one of the first described ice-impounded lava flows on Earth, having been studied by Canadian geologist Bill Mathews in the 1950s. → "The Barrier was the first recognized ice-marginal lava flow in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt and was among the first ice-impounded lava flows on Earth, studied by Canadian geologist Bill Mathews in the 1950s." (if it is described then it is, i.e., it is not an opinion, unless there is conflict in literature, which then should be mentioned)

  "first described ice-impounded lava flows on Earth" and "among the first ice-impounded lava flows on Earth" are not the same thing. Volcanoguy 20:27, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  my mistake then... A.Cython(talk) 21:32, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  But with that being said, the source does use "described". Volcanoguy 21:44, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• flows such as The Barrier are add commas before "such" and after "Barrier"

  Done. Volcanoguy 20:58, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• the right folk leads I think you mean "fork"?

  Fixed. Volcanoguy 20:24, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• switchbacks more than 20 times as it climbs I think you mean "switchback is more than as long as it climbs"

  No. Volcanoguy 20:32, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

• aircraft or add comma
• add comma in every instance of said "

  Whereabouts? Volcanoguy 17:48, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

  No worries, added.A.Cython(talk) 21:09, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

• The subsection, The_Barrier#Outburst_floods, reads as a journalist style article, due to IMO overuse of quotes. I am not going to press this now, but consider now and after the review the reduction of these quotes. See MOS:QUOTE: While quotations are an indispensable part of Wikipedia, excessive use of them is incompatible with an encyclopedic writing style and may be copyright infringement, so most of the content should be in the editor's own words. Consider paraphrasing quotations into plain and concise text when appropriate (while being aware that close paraphrasing can still violate copyright)

  I agree the amount of quotes in this section should be cut down, but is there a consensus as to what qualifies as excessive quoting? I've seen articles with more quotations than this one. Volcanoguy 22:22, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

  I do not think there are precise rules, my understanding of the consensus is less is better. As a general rule of thumb (in history/politics related topics), a quote is suitable to be used when it is used as a quote in a WP:SECONDARY source, i.e., by another geologist, historian, etc. Of course there are exceptions so take what I said with a grain of salt and use your own discretion of which quote should stay and which should not. The sources from which you draw the quotes seemed to me as WP:PRIMARYNEWS; please note that I am not here to have a dispute what is a primary and secondary source. It was a general comment/observation on how to improve the article and not part of the review, i.e., you can do this after we conclude the review. A.Cython(talk) 22:37, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Sources

Spot check: 1, 6, 21, 37, 46, 52

• Can you check this?
  • source #21: This inherent instability and potential further risks from volcanic, tectonic, or rainfall activity prompted the province to declare the area below The Barrier unsafe in 1981
  • your text: Concerns about The Barrier's instability due to volcanic, tectonic or heavy rainfall activity prompted the Government of British Columbia to declare the area immediately below it unsafe for human habitation in 1980

    The first source says 1981, but the second source says 1980. Volcanoguy 20:31, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

    Then add a efn note that clarifies this. For example, you could say the "unsafe for human habitation in early 1980s[note]" where in the notes says source one says 1980 and the other 1981. If one of them is deemed wrong then remove it. A.Cython(talk) 20:37, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

    Or should it be changed to "1980–1981"? Volcanoguy 21:03, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

    Sure, this is good enough.A.Cython(talk) 21:10, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

    Done. Volcanoguy 21:25, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Final comments

Thank you for making the changes. I think we covered most of the issues (any remaining is beyond the scope of GA), thus congratulations to Volcanoguy for bringing this excellent article about mountain range with an awesome name! Well done! A.Cython(talk) 21:20, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Canadian English editnotice request

Please create an edit notice for the article, placing in it the template {{Canadian English|form=editnotice}}. Thank you. Volcanoguy 23:21, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

 Done...PS great job here!Moxy🍁 01:37, 25 February 2026 (UTC)