Chilliwack Secondary School is named after the community of Chilliwack. The school has undergone a few name changes in its history. Prior to being Chilliwack Scondary School, it was once called Chilliwack Senior Secondary School (CSSS) and Chilliwack High School (CHS). Chilliwack Secondary School was formerly located where Chilliwack Middle School today, and prior to that – where Central Elementary School is located.
The name Chilliwack is an Anglicized version of a Halq’eméylem word Ts’elxwéyeqw meaning “going back upstream; backwater; as far as you can go with a canoe” (Carlson, 2001) and/or “as far as you can go with a paddle before having to switch to a pole” (Denman, 2008).
Chilliwack also refers to a group of First Nations Peoples, the Ts’elxwéyeqw, as well as the river in the area by the same name (Chilliwack River).
Alternate spellings:
Chilliwhack (Township of); Ts’elxwéyeqw; Chillwayhook, Chil-whey-uk, Chilwayook, Silawack.
Community: Chilliwack
References:
Carlson, K. (2001). A Stó:lō Coast Salish Historical Atlas. Chilliwack, B.C.: Stó:lō Nation.
Denman, R. (2007). The Chilliwack Story. Chilliwack, B.C.: Chilliwack Museum and Historical Society
Photograph caption: Group portrait of students in front of the Chilliwack High School on Yale Road East, ca. 191-. The large brick and stone Chilliwack High School, as it appeared at 46354 Yale Road East after 1912. According to the Chilliwack Heritage Inventory Plans had been prepared in 1911 for a new school capable of handling 200 students; it was finished and opened the next year. The high hip, slate covered roof was removed in 1951 and replaced by a flat roof. The building became Chilliwack Junior Secondary School with the construction Chilliwack Senior Secondary in 1957 on the opposite side of Yale Road East.