Artifact Creek is a tributary of

Stewbomb Creek Stewbomb Creek is a tributary of the Little Iskut River and part of the Stikine River watershed in northwest part of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally southeast for roughly Lengths and distances measured using BCGNIS co ...

and part of the Stikine River

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

in northwest part of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally southeast for roughly Lengths and distances measured using BCGNIS coordinates, topographic maps, online map servers, an
Toporama
/ref> to join Stewbomb Creek, which flows into the

Little Iskut River The Little Iskut River is a tributary of the Iskut River in the northwest part of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia, Canada, in Cassiar Land District. From its source at Little Ball Lake in Mount Edziza Provincia ...

.In turn the Little Iskut River flows to the Iskut River, the largest tributary of the Stikine River. Artifact Creek's watershed covers , and is entirely in

Mount Edziza Provincial Park Mount Edziza Provincial Park is a provincial park in Cassiar Land District of northern British Columbia, Canada. It was established on 27 July 1972 to protect the Mount Edziza volcanic complex and the surrounding Tahltan Highland. Geography ...

. The creek's mean annual

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

is estimated at . The mouth of Artifact Creek is located about southeast of Telegraph Creek, British Columbia, about south of Dease Lake, British Columbia, and about southeast of

Juneau, Alaska The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

. Artifact Creek's watershed's

land cover Land cover is the physical material at the surface of Earth. Land covers include grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, water, etc. Earth cover is the expression used by ecologist Frederick Edward Clements that has its closest modern equivalent being ...

is classified as 51.4%

barren Barren primarily refers to a state of barrenness (infertility) Barren may also refer to: Places * Barren, Missouri *Barren County, Kentucky * Barren Island (Andaman Islands) *Barren Island, Brooklyn *Barren River Lake Other uses * ''Barren Count ...

, 15.3%

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

, 14.5%

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

, 10.3% conifer forest, 8.2% snow/ glacier, and small amounts of other cover. Artifact Creek is in

, which lies within the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, of the Tahltan people. The name of Artifact Creek and nearby

Artifact Ridge Artifact Ridge is a mountain ridge extending southeast from the eastern side of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is bounded on the north by Bourgeaux Creek valley, on the south by Artifact Creek vall ...

and

Obsidian Ridge Obsidian Ridge is a volcanic mountain ridge in the Spectrum Range of northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located on the south side of Artifact Creek at the southeast end of Mount Edziza Provincial Park. It was named on January 2, 1980 by the ...

comes from the abundant piles of stone chips left from the knapping of

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

tools and points by early Tahltan hunters.

Geography

Artifact Creek originates near

Kitsu Peak Kitsu Peak is the highest summit of the Spectrum Range at the southern end of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is bounded on the west by Nagha Creek valley, on the northwest by the Kitsu Plateau, on ...

, about south of Mount Edziza. It flows east and southeast between

to the south and

to the north. It collects various small unnamed tributary streams before emptying into Stewbomb Creek about upstream from Stewbomb's confluence with the Little Iskut River.

Geology

The north side of Artifact Creek is bounded by a sequence of lava flows belonging to the

Armadillo Formation The Armadillo Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Miocene age in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Naming The Armadillo Formation takes its name from Armadillo Peak, a volcanic peak east of Raspberry Pass in the middle of the Mount Edziza v ...

of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. A single ash flow deposit also belonging to the Armadillo Formation is exposed on the south side of Artifact Creek. Along the north side of Artifact Creek are two poorly exposed, low, northeasterly trending ridges of trachybasalt that may be

intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

s linked to the Little Iskut conduit system.

References

{{Rivers of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex Cassiar Land District Mount Edziza volcanic complex Rivers of British Columbia Stikine Country Tahltan Tahltan Highland

Geography

Geology

See also

References