The Gazetteer of British Columbia is a spreadsheet of all official place names, including feature type, feature code, mapsheet, and latitude & longitude. The Gazetteer is extracted from the BC Geographical Names Information System (BCGNIS), the master database of British Columbia place names. The BC Gazetteer is available as a zipped SHP file, CSV or XLSX. See also BC Geographical Names (https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/43805524-4add-4474-ad53-1a985930f352) dataset for other formats and download options. **Some software (including MS Excel) may assume the wrong encoding when the .csv file is opened**, and this can cause names with special characters to be presented incorrectly. With whatever software you use to open the .csv file, it is recommended to open the file in a way that explicitly acknowledges the UTF-8 character encoding. Alternatively, **the Gazetteer is also available in .xlsx format which is recommended for MS Excel users** because it will automatically recognize the correct character encoding.

<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><P><SPAN>USGS developed The National Map Gazetteer as the federal and national standard (ANSI INCITS 446-2008) for geographic nomenclature based on the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The National Map Gazetteer contains information about physical and cultural geographic features, geographic areas, and locational entities that are generally recognizable and locatable by name (have achieved some landmark status) and are of interest to any level of government or to the public for any purpose that would lead to the representation of the feature in printed or electronic products and/or geographic information systems. The dataset includes features of all types in the United States, its associated areas, and Antarctica, current and historical, but not including roads and highways. The dataset holds the federally recognized name of each feature and defines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geographic coordinates. Other attributes include names or spellings other than the official name, feature classification, and historical and descriptive information. The dataset assigns a unique, permanent feature identifier, the Feature ID, as a standard Federal key for accessing, integrating, or reconciling feature data from multiple datasets. This dataset is a flat model, establishing no relationships between features, such as hierarchical, spatial, jurisdictional, organizational, administrative, or in any other manner. As an integral part of The National Map, the Gazetteer collects data from a broad program of partnerships with federal, state, and local government agencies and other authorized contributors. The Gazetteer provides data to all levels of government, to the public, and to numerous applications through a web query site, web map and feature services, file download services, and customized files upon request. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain geographic names data by state in a pipe-delimited text format. For additional information, go to http://nationalmap.gov/gnis.html.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV>

The USGS Governmental Unit Boundaries service from The National Map (TNM) represents major civil areas for the Nation, including States or Territories, counties (or equivalents), Federal and Native American areas, congressional districts, minor civil divisions, incorporated places (such as cities and towns), and unincorporated places. Boundaries data are useful for understanding the extent of jurisdictional or administrative areas for a wide range of applications, including mapping or managing resources, and responding to natural disasters. Boundaries data also include extents of forest, grassland, park, wilderness, wildlife, and other reserve areas useful for recreational activities, such as hiking and backpacking. Boundaries data are acquired from a variety of government sources. The data represents the source data with minimal editing or review by USGS. Please refer to the feature-level metadata for information on the data source. The National Map boundaries data is commonly combined with other data themes, such as elevation, hydrography, structures, and transportation, to produce general reference base maps. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain boundaries data in either Esri File Geodatabase or Shapefile formats. For additional information on the boundaries data model, go to http://nationalmap.gov/boundaries.html.

The USGS Structures service from The National Map (TNM) consists of data to include the name, function, location, and other core information and characteristics of selected manmade facilities. The types of structures collected are largely determined by the needs of disaster planning and emergency response, and homeland security organizations. Structures data are designed to be used in general mapping and in the analysis of structure related activities using geographic information system technology. The National Map structures data is commonly combined with other data themes, such as boundaries, elevation, hydrography, and transportation, to produce general reference base maps. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain structures data in either Esri File Geodatabase or Shapefile formats. For additional information on the structures data model, go to http://nationalmap.gov/structures.html.

USGS developed The National Map (TNM) Gazetteer as the Federal and national standard (ANSI INCITS 446-2008) for geographic nomenclature based on the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The National Map Gazetteer contains information about physical and cultural geographic features, geographic areas, and locational entities that are generally recognizable and locatable by name (have achieved some landmark status) and are of interest to any level of government or to the public for any purpose that would lead to the representation of the feature in printed or electronic maps and/or geographic information systems. The dataset includes features of all types in the United States, its associated areas, and Antarctica, current and historical, but not including roads and highways. The dataset holds the federally recognized name of each feature and defines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geographic coordinates. Other attributes include names or spellings other than the official name, feature classification, and historical and descriptive information. The dataset assigns a unique, permanent feature identifier, the Feature ID, as a standard Federal key for accessing, integrating, or reconciling feature data from multiple data sets. This dataset is a flat model, establishing no relationships between features, such as hierarchical, spatial, jurisdictional, organizational, administrative, or in any other manner. As an integral part of The National Map, the Gazetteer collects data from a broad program of partnerships with federal, state, and local government agencies and other authorized contributors. The Gazetteer provides data to all levels of government and to the public, as well as to numerous applications through a web query site, web map, feature and XML services, file download services, and customized files upon request. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain geographic names data by state in a pipe-delimited text format. For additional information on the GNIS, go to http://nationalmap.gov/gnis.html.