Taaw Tldáaw

Taaw Tldáaw
Taaw Tldáaw
Tow Hill
	Taaw Tldáaw on Graham Island
Highest point
Elevation	125 m (410 ft)
Prominence	118 m (387 ft)
Listing	List of volcanoes in Canada
Coordinates	54°04′27.1″N 131°47′56.1″W / 54.074194°N 131.798917°W
Geography
Location	Graham Island, British Columbia, Canada
District	Queen Charlotte Land District
Topo map	NTS 103J4 Tow Hill
Geology
Age of rock	2 million years
Mountain type	Volcanic plug

Taaw Tldáaw, formerly known as Tow Hill, is a large isolated volcanic plug located 21 km (13 mi) east of Masset on the north end of the Naikoon Peninsula of northeast Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada, east of McIntyre Bay and near the mouth of the Hiellen River,^[1] which is the site of Hiellen, a now-abandoned Haida village and of the Hiellen Indian Reserve No. 2, on the site of that village. Formerly Tow Hill Provincial Park, it is now part of Naikoon Provincial Park, which covers most of the northeastern flatland of Graham Island.

Taaw Tldáaw is the traditional, ancient name of this hill. During the colonial era it was, as the Haida phrase it, "briefly known as Tow Hill". The name Taaw Tldáaw was officially restored in 2022 as part of the Haida's ongoing efforts to reclaim their indigenous land rights and sovereignty.^[2]^[1]

Taaw Tldáaw is associated by the editors of Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia with the Queen Charlotte Mountains which in turn form part of the Insular Mountains,^[3] but it is not physically part of the range, and is separated from mountainous parts of Graham Island by expanses of forested flatland-marsh and is properly designated as being on the Argonaut Plain, one of the lowland areas of Haida Gwaii not in the Queen Charlotte Mountains.^[4]

Taaw Tldáaw consists of faceted columnar-jointed basalt columns that solidified about two million years ago during the Pleistocene epoch.

"This feature is an eroded volcanic plug - the most distinctive navigational landmark on the entire North Beach. Tow is derived from a Haida word that rhymes with "cow", and means place of food. Many legends about its origin and the significance of the blowhole at the base of the hill......"^[5]