The Bulkley River in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
is a major
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...
of the
Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...
. The Bulkley is long with a drainage basin covering .
Much of the Bulkey is paralleled by
Highway 16
Route 16, or Highway 16, can refer to:
International
* Asian Highway 16
* European route E16
* European route E016
Australia
- Thompsons Road (Victoria)
- South Australia
Canada
;Parts of the Trans-Canada Highway:
* Yellowhead ...
. It flows west from Bulkley Lake past
Perow and is joined near
Houston
Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...
by the
Morice River, its major tributary. The Bulkley continues north past
Quick,
Telkwa and
Smithers. It then meets the Skeena River near
Hazelton. The Bulkley River is a major tourist destination for anglers targeting wild steelhead.
[http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/skeena/fish/AMPs/Bulkley_AMP.pdf ]
The river was originally called ''Wet'sinkwha'' ("blue and green river") by the
Wet'suwet'en people, the
indigenous inhabitants of the Bulkley Valley. The name Bulkley was given for Colonel Charles S. Bulkley, the U.S. Army engineer-in-charge of the survey team who, in 1866, explored the area in preparation for the failed
Russian American Telegraph. The project was abandoned because of the success of the trans-Atlantic cable in 1866.
The Little Bulkley, a smaller stream running through Houston, and the Morice join just west of Houston. At the point of their joining they become the Bulkley, not the Morice, although the Morice is larger. This was done by Poudrier, a government cartographer who, it is rumoured, never saw the region.
See also
*
Bulkley Valley
References
External links
Water Quality Objectives for the Bulkley River Basin
Bulkley Valley
Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako
Rivers of British Columbia
Cassiar Land District
{{BritishColumbiaInterior-river-stub