Stikine River

The Stikine River is a major river in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. It drains a large, remote upland area known as the Stikine Country east of the Coast Mountains. Flowing west and south for , it empties into various straits of the Inside Passage near Wrangell, Alaska. About 90 percent of the river's length and 95 percent of its drainage basin are in Canada.Lehner, B., Verdin, K., Jarvis, A. (2008)
New global hydrography derived from spaceborne elevation data
Eos, Transactions, AGU, 89(10): 93–94. Considered one of the last truly wild large rivers in BC, the Stikine flows through a variety of landscapes including boreal forest, steep canyons and wide glacial valleys.

Known as the "fastest-flowing navigable river in North America," the Stikine forms a natural waterway from northern interior British Columbia to the Pacific coast. The river has been used for millennia by indigenous peoples including the Tlingit and Tahltan for fishing, hunting and trade. It provided access for fur traders and prospectors during the 1800s and remained an important transportation route until the 1970s, when roads were finally opened to the northern interior. However, most of the Stikine basin remains wilderness, with only a few small settlements; only two bridges, one disused, cross the river along its entire length. The river's salmon run supports large commercial and subsistence fisheries, and its extensive estuary and delta provide habitat for numerous fish and migratory bird species.

Despite its isolation, the Stikine is a destination for recreational activities including boating, hunting and fishing. The river's Grand Canyon, known for its dangerous rapids, has been called the " K2 of white-water challenges" and has only been run by a handful of expert kayakers. During the latter part of the 20th century, numerous large parks and protected areas were established in the Stikine basin, and by the beginning of the 21st century some 60 percent of the basin was under some form of conservation management. However, in recent decades the water quality and natural beauty of the Stikine have been threatened by new energy, transport and mining developments in northern BC.

Names

The river was known to the Tlingit as ''Shtax'heen'', "bitter river" or "muddy river", in reference to its murky glacial waters. The Stikine group of Tlingit, Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan, takes its name from the river. The Tahltan called the river ''Spatsizi'', "red goat", referring to the mountain goats whose white coats were often colored by the red earth of the region. One tributary of the upper Stikine is today known as the Spatsizi River. Another Tahltan name for the river was ''Tudessa'', "long river", from which the Tudenekoten clan of Tahltan took its name. Russian fur traders called the river ''ryka Stahkin'' (''река Стакин''), changed to ''Stikine'' by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1869 after the Alaska Purchase. Other 19th century names for the river include "St. Francis River" and "Pelly's River". A historic alternative spelling was ''Stickeen'', reflected in the short-lived British Stickeen Territories.

Geography

The Stikine River basin covers about in the Stikine Region and Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine, BC, with a small portion in the City and Borough of Wrangell, Alaska. Most of the Stikine basin corresponds with the southern half of the Stikine Plateau, a vast and mostly forested region of dissected plateaus, rolling hills and narrow valleys in northwest BC. The Stikine Plateau is bordered on the east by the Cassiar Mountains and Omineca Mountains and on the south by the Stikine Ranges of the Skeena Mountains. All three ranges are part of BC's Interior Mountains. To the west are the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, which run along the U.S.–Canada border. After collecting runoff from the Stikine Plateau, the Stikine River slices west through the Coast Mountains, emptying into the Inside Passage roughly in the middle of the Alexander Archipelago, which shelters Inside Passage waterways from the Pacific Ocean.

The extensively glaciated Coast Mountains are the tallest mountains in the Stikine basin, with the highest point being Mount Ratz, above sea level. The highest points of the Stikine Plateau are generally around . The Cassiar and Omineca Mountains, rising , are also rugged but have less relief than the Coast Mountains due to their higher base elevation. The Tahltan Highland is located between the Coast Mountains and the Stikine Plateau. Drainage basins adjacent to the Stikine are the Taku River to the northwest, the Dease, Kechika and Finlay Rivers (all part of the greater Mackenzie River system) to the north and east, and the Skeena, Nass and Unuk Rivers to the south.

The Stikine basin is very sparsely populated; in 2005, the entire basin was home to about 1,300 people. The only established communities are Iskut, Telegraph Creek and Bob Quinn Lake, all in British Columbia. Dease Lake is located just outside the northern edge of the basin, near the Tanzilla River. The larger towns of Wrangell (population 2,127) and Petersburg, Alaska (3,398) are located close to the mouth of the river, but are not within the drainage basin. Forests cover about 50 percent of the basin, and most of the remainder is covered by treeless tundra or permanent ice and snow. About 73 percent of the basin in BC is considered to be in a wilderness or semi-wilderness condition.

Due to the rain shadow effect of the Coast Mountains, the interior Stikine basin has a much drier and more variable climate than the coast. Wrangell experiences a humid continental climate, with monthly average temperatures ranging from a low of in January to in July. The average annual precipitation is . Dease Lake, about northeast of Telegraph Creek, experiences a subarctic climate with monthly average temperatures ranging from in January to in June, and an average annual precipitation of just . In the interior, freezing temperatures are observed in six months of the year.

Course

The headwaters of the Stikine are in the Spatsizi Plateau, the southeasternmost sub-plateau of the Stikine Plateau. Originating on Mount Umbach above sea level in the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, it flows northeast through a chain of small lakes, including Tuaton and Laslui Lakes, then turns north, following a meandering course along the western foothills of the Omineca Mountains and the Cassiar Mountains. The river enters Stikine River Provincial Park, turning west at the confluence with the Chukachida River, then northwest at the confluence with the Spatsizi River. At the confluence with the Pitman River, it turns due west again, now flowing along the south side of the Three Sisters Range, then receives the Klappan River from the south. North of Iskut, it is crossed by BC Highway 37 (Cassiar Highway), the only road bridge across the Stikine.

Below Highway 37, the river enters the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, a deep canyon cutting between the Tanzilla and Klastline Plateaus, both sub-plateaus of the Stikine Plateau. Here, it flows much more swiftly, falling in between Highway 37 and Telegraph Creek. At one point the channel narrows from wide to just wide, a place known as the "Tanzilla Slot", where it squeezes between sheer walls of volcanic rock. After receiving the Tuya and Tahltan Rivers from the north it flows through Mount Edziza Provincial Park, home to the dormant stratovolcano Mount Edziza, the central feature of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. Just downstream is Telegraph Creek, the only permanent settlement on the river. Telegraph Creek, upstream of the Stikine's mouth, is considered the head of navigation on the Stikine.

Turning south, the Stikine flows through the Tahltan Highland along the eastern side of the Coast Mountains, where it receives numerous tributaries including the Chutine and Porcupine Rivers. The gradient flattens considerably compared to the upper course, and after the Chutine confluence it becomes wide and braided. Its course takes it around the east and south sides of the massive Stikine Icecap, the source of numerous glaciers that descend to the valley floor. John Muir, who visited the Stikine country in 1879, described the lower Stikine as "a Yosemite 100 miles long" due to its hundreds of glaciers and other glacially formed features. The Stikine is joined by its largest tributary, the Iskut River, from the east before passing the former border station of Stikine, BC where it enters Alaska. Turning west, the river cuts through the Coast Mountains for to the sea. In Alaska, the channel gradient is very low, with tidal influences felt up to upstream from the mouth.

The mouth of the Stikine forms a large delta opposite Mitkof Island about north of Wrangell and southeast of Petersburg. The main channel empties into the Eastern Passage at the head of Sumner Strait and Stikine Strait, while the North Arm splits off from the main channel and flows into Frederick Sound. King Slough splits southwest from the North Arm and enters Dry Strait, which connects the north end of Eastern Passage to Frederick Sound. Farm Island and Dry Island are situated between the north and main channels, with King Slough dividing the two. Due to sediment deposits from the Stikine River delta, Dry Strait is often dry at low tide and thus unsuitable for most ships using the Inside Passage. Marine traffic typically uses the Wrangell Narrows or the Chatham Strait further west.

Discharge

By flow volume, the Stikine is the largest river in southeast Alaska and the fifth largest river in BC. Flows of the Stikine River are affected by three main sources of runoff: snowmelt from the Stikine Plateau (peaking late spring or early summer), glacier melt from the Coast Mountains (peaking late summer), and rainfall from coastal Pacific storms (peaking autumn). The U.S. Geological Survey has operated a stream gage near the mouth of the river from 1976 to the present. The average annual discharge is with a monthly maximum of in June, and a minimum of in February. The highest annual mean was in 1981, and the lowest was in 1978. At Telegraph Creek, the average annual discharge is . The lower Stikine near the international border is generally frozen from October/November to April/May, while at Telegraph Creek, freezing occurs about a week earlier and break-up occurs one to three weeks later.

Geology

The Stikine basin includes several major terranes or crustal fragments that accreted to the western North American continent starting from about 180 million years ago. The Stikine Plateau roughly corresponds with the northern part of the Stikine Terrane ("Stikinia"), part of the larger Intermontane Belt complex. The Cassiar and Omineca Mountains to the east are formed from granite batholith remnants of an ancient continental volcanic arc (the Omineca Arc) which arose as a result of subduction following Stikinia's collision with the North American continent. The Coast Mountains, to the west, are formed in the same manner by the later collision of the Insular Belt terrane with the Intermontane terrane. Subduction forces created the granite batholith of the Coast Range volcanic arc, which was eventually uplifted to form the contemporary Coast Mountains between the Stikine Plateau and the Pacific coast.

Despite the Coast Mountains being higher in elevation than the interior plateaus and ranges, the Stikine flows west cutting through them to reach the Pacific. Several nearby rivers including the Copper, Alsek and Taku Rivers do the same, suggesting that these river systems had been established along the west coast of the North American continent prior to the development of the Coast Range Arc. During the uplift of the Coast Mountains, the rivers maintained their courses as antecedent streams. The ancestral Stikine River may be as much as 50 million years old, with the present uplift of the Coast Mountains starting about 7 million years ago.

Beginning about 2.5 million years ago in the Pleistocene, much of the interior Stikine basin was covered by successive Ice Age glaciations. During interglacial periods, the continental ice sheet retreated northward but remnant Coast Mountain glaciers blocked the outlet of the Stikine River, causing glacier melt to back up the river valley and create Glacial Lake Stikine. The lake filled and emptied numerous times, leaving shoreline deposits high on nearby mountainsides. Glaciers and ice sheets still exist in the Stikine basin today, but to a much more limited extent. The Stikine Icecap, located in the Coast Mountains between the Stikine and Taku Rivers and the source of numerous glaciers descending to the Stikine valley, is one of the largest. Glacial activity strongly affects the geomorphology of the lower Stikine River. Due in large part to glacial silt or rock flour, the Stikine carries a heavy sediment load – some 16 million tonnes per year – continually expanding the large delta at the mouth of the river. In August 1979, a glacial lake outburst flood occurred at the Flood Glacier, releasing of water into the Stikine River, causing minor flooding as far as the mouth of the river.

The Stikine's Grand Canyon likely formed after one such glacial period. Previously, the Stikine may have turned south around the present-day Klappan River confluence, and flowed down the valley of what is now the Iskut River. The river's former course may have been blocked by glaciers and it was forced to cut a new path west towards present-day Telegraph Creek. Another theory is that lava flows from the Mount Edziza volcanic complex were responsible for diverting the Stikine to its new course.

History and culture

First peoples

The Stikine River creates one of the only natural passages through the Coast Mountains, and for thousands of years it has been used as a trade route by indigenous peoples. The river has great cultural significance for indigenous peoples; the adjacent headwaters of the Stikine, Skeena River and Nass Rivers in the Klappan Range are known to the Tahltan as ''Klabona'', the Sacred Headwaters. The lower Stikine and Iskut rivers are home to "a high number of aboriginal cultural heritage sites, including old villages, legend sites and traditional fishing areas."

Archeological sites in southeast Alaska suggest that the first humans arrived in this region about 10,000 years ago, around the end of the last glaciation, when ice dams that had previously blocked the Stikine were receding. According to Tlingit legend, their ancestors lived in the interior thousands of years ago and migrated to the coast via the Stikine River. However, a glacier (perhaps today's Great Glacier) blocked their passage down the river. Tribal elders explored a tunnel through which the river flowed under the glacier, expecting not to return from this dangerous mission. To their surprise they discovered a way through, and their people followed to settle in southeast Alaska. Similar stories are told regarding the other rivers (Copper, Alsek and Taku) that slice through the Coast Mountains.

The Pacific coastal part of the Stikine basin is in the traditional lands of the Shtax'héen Kwáan (Stikine band of Tlingit). Formed by the unification of several smaller clans under the hereditary lineage of Chief Shakes, they controlled a large area around the mouth of the Stikine and extending well upriver. The original Shtax'héen Kwáan territory, estimated at , was the largest of any Tlingit group. The lands of the Tahltan people extended over much of the interior Stikine Plateau, including the entirety of the inland Stikine basin. Tahltan and Tlingit lands met around the confluence of the Stikine and Iskut rivers. The navigable section of Stikine between the Grand Canyon and the Iskut River was shared by the Tlingit and Tahltan on a seasonal basis. In summer, Tlingit would travel up the river to dry salmon and berries in the dry interior climate. During winter the Tahltan had exclusive use of this section, which they utilized for hunting and trapping. In the area around present-day Glenora, the Tlingit claimed use of tributaries while the Tahltan held rights to the main stem. The Tlingit also had exclusive use of certain berry patches, which were not so abundant on the coast.

The Tlingit, traveling in large dugout canoes up to in length, dominated river commerce on the Stikine. They also transported goods from other coastal tribes including the Haida and Tsimshian into the interior, where they traded with the Tahltan. The primary trading location was at the confluence of the Stikine and Tahltan rivers. Most of the Tahltan clans visited this place every year to fish and trade. From the coast, goods including eulachon, salmon oil, shells, woven baskets and blankets, as well as slaves obtained by the militaristic Haida, were ferried to the interior and exchanged for furs, caribou and moose hides, babiche, and obsidian knives and arrowheads (the latter mined from volcanic deposits around Mount Edidza). The Tahltan in turn traded coastal goods with the Kaska and Sekani further inland.

Fur trade

Captain George Vancouver mapped the Stikine delta in 1793 during the Vancouver Expedition, but did not realize that the river extended into the interior. In 1799, Captain Rowan in the sloop ''Eliza'' reached the Stikine delta and was the first European to record the name "Stikine". In 1799 the Russian-American Company was chartered to establish new Russian settlements in North America and was granted a monopoly on the maritime fur trade in what was then Russian Alaska. The area included the mouth of the Stikine River, which became a key route for transporting furs from the interior.

During the 1800s-1860s the Tlingit controlled trade on the river, transporting Western goods upstream to trade for furs from the Tahltan. At the same time, the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was attempting to extend its influence on the fur trade to the Pacific Coast, after Samuel Black explored northern BC in 1824 and brought news that the Russians were trading with the Tlingit for furs. The HBC also attempted to seize control of the Stikine fur trade from the coast, sending a ship, ''Dryad'', to establish a trading post at the mouth of the river. However, they were beaten by the Russians who in 1834 built Redoubt St. Dionysius in what is now Wrangell, Alaska. In 1838, HBC trader Robert Campbell reached the upper Stikine River and became the first white man to make contact with the Tahltans. By doing so, Campbell had established the final link of a route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic fur trades, stretching across northern Canada.

In 1839, the HBC leased rights to the Stikine fur trade from the Russians, and took control of Redoubt St. Dionysius, renaming it Fort Stikine. The Tlingit were upset with the HBC in part due to Campbell's expedition the previous year, in which he had attempted to establish a trading post at Dease Lake. This was seen as an attempt to break the monopoly the Tlingit held on furs from the interior. The HBC also reduced the price they were willing to pay for furs, further worsening relations with the Tlingit. In 1842 the Tlingit besieged Fort Stikine, and were close to destroying it before the arrival of British and Russian reinforcements. After continued tense relations led to Tlingit attacks in 1846–47, the HBC abandoned the fort in 1849, though they continued to trade in the Stikine River area via ships.

As trading with Westerners increased, the regional balance of power shifted towards the Tlingit, and the Tahltan became more culturally integrated with their coastal neighbors. Intermarriage became increasingly common, Tlingit was adopted as the official language of trade, and Tlingit customs such as potlatch made their way into the interior. Seeking more furs to trade, the Tahltan also expanded their territory beyond the Stikine River basin into the upper Nass and Taku Rivers, leading to conflicts with neighboring tribes.

In the 1830s smallpox, likely introduced via Russian ships and spread up the Stikine by Tlingit traders, killed more than half the Tahltan population. Over the next few decades, repeated waves of smallpox devastated Tlingit and Tahltan populations. At the beginning of the summer 1862 epidemic, numerous Tlingit were working or trading in Victoria, BC when the first cases were discovered. To prevent the spread of disease among the white population, the Tlingit were forced to return to their homelands in southeast Alaska, bringing smallpox with them. Smallpox ravaged the coast over the 1862 summer, killing some 60 percent of the Stikine Tlingit.

Gold rush period

Alexander "Buck" Choquette discovered gold on the lower Stikine in 1861, sparking the brief Stikine Gold Rush. More than 800 men departed from Victoria to the Stikine River, where they traveled into the interior on steamboats. The large influx of miners into the Stikine country, along with the businesses that supplied them with provisions, brought an end to Tlingit control of trade on the Stikine. Although not much gold was found on the Stikine, the Stickeen Territories were established to administer the region, and soon incorporated into the Colony of British Columbia. Prospectors continued to push deeper into the Stikine country over the next few years. In light of this and declining profits from the fur trade, Russia feared it would lose control of its North American colonies to Great Britain, and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867. The U.S. Army occupied Fort Stikine in 1868, renaming it Fort Wrangel. Military force was used to assert control over the Tlingit, preventing them from interfering with settlers, prospectors and traders headed to the interior.

In 1866 the Western Union Telegraph Company sought to build a telegraph line connecting North America and Europe, crossing the Bering Strait and Siberia. In order to support construction through the BC interior, large bales of wire were shipped via steamboat to the Stikine's head of navigation, which became known as Telegraph Creek. After the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable in 1867 the project was abandoned, though the name remained. At that point the telegraph had been completed as far north as Hazelton, BC. The section from Quesnel to Hazelton was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Telegraph service was eventually extended to Telegraph Creek and onward to Dawson City, Yukon in 1899, closely following the route laid out three decades before.

In 1871, the US and a newly independent Canada signed a treaty guaranteeing free navigation on the Stikine through American territory. The treaty still applies to Canada's use of the river, even though the river is no longer used for commercial shipping. In 1874, gold was discovered near Dease Lake. The Cassiar Gold Rush, lasting until 1880, saw hundreds of miners traveling deep into Tahltan lands and a resurgence in riverboat traffic. Although many Tahltans found employment as packers or hunters during the gold rush period, there were also frequent conflicts due to miners encroaching on their land, while disease continued to reduce Tahltan numbers. In order to protect their culture, several Tahltan clans built a communal village, Tahltan, at the confluence of the Stikine and Tahltan rivers. This village was inhabited until 1920, when its remaining residents moved to Telegraph Creek.

In the late 1890s the Klondike Gold Rush brought even more people to the area. Due to being considered international waters, the Stikine was marketed as the "All-Canadian" route to the Yukon, allowing travelers to avoid customs duties at the Alaska border. In 1897–98 more than three thousand miners passed through the Stikine, many in such a hurry that they embarked in winter and traveled by sled up the frozen river. They camped at Telegraph Creek or Glenora (the head of low water navigation) before continuing overland north to the Yukon. In its promotion of the route, the Canadian government promised a "first-class wagon road" to be built from Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake, where miners could board boats for the journey down the Yukon River. However, the construction was a fiasco due to delays and engineering challenges, and miners found difficult, muddy conditions waiting for them. By 1900 the gold rush was over, and the boomtowns of the Stikine quickly faded. Glenora was abandoned while Telegraph Creek remained as a small village.

20th century

The Stikine remained the primary route to interior northern BC well into the twentieth century. After the end of the Klondike gold rush, riverboats continued to operate on the Stikine, carrying oil, machinery and food upriver and returning with furs and ore, in addition to ferrying passengers. Goods were unloaded at Telegraph Creek and transported by vehicle or pack train to remote inland communities. From the 1930s to the 1960s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for clearing the navigation channel along the Alaska reach, which is often clogged with snags and driftwood. The shallow channels of the Stikine delta were another hazard to shipping, with boats occasionally stranding at low tide. One of the last boats to operate regularly on the Stikine was the ''Judith Ann'', which plied the river between 1950 and 1970. In the 1960s the Cassiar Highway was extended from the Alaska Highway