Mess Creek, formerly known as Mestua, is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''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 into which they ...

of the

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 ...

in northwestern

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. It flows north and northwest for about , through a lake and a

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

to join the Stikine River, which in turn flows southwest across the Canada–United States border into

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

where it empties into various

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

s of the

Inside Passage The Inside Passage () is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeastern Alaska in the United St ...

. The northern half of Mess Creek forms a western boundary of

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 showcase the Mount Edziza volcanic complex and the surrounding Tahltan Highland. Geography The ...

which lies within the traditional territory of the

Tahltan The Tahltan or Nahani are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. The Tahltan constitute the fourth division of the ''Nahan ...

people. Mess Creek's

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

covers and its estimated mean annual discharge is . The mouth of Mess Creek is located about southwest of

Telegraph Creek Telegraph Creek is a small community located off Highway 37 in northern British Columbia at the confluence of the Stikine River and Telegraph Creek. The only permanent settlement on the Stikine River, it is home to approximately 250 members of ...

, about west of

Iskut Iskut is a small, mostly Indigenous community in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia. It is located on Highway 37, at the north end of Eddontenajon Lake just south of Dease Lake and the crossing of the Stikine River. Communi ...

and about southwest of

Dease Lake Dease Lake is a small community in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is 230 km south of the Yukon border on Stewart–Cassiar Highway (Highway 37) at the south end of the lake of the same na ...

Cassiar Land District Cassiar Land District is a cadastral survey subdivision of the province of British Columbia, Canada, created with rest of those on Mainland British Columbia via the Lands Act of the Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866), Colony of British Columb ...

. Mess Creek's watershed's

land cover Land cover is the physical material at the land surface of Earth. Land covers include flora, concrete, built structures, bare ground, and temporary water. Earth cover is the expression used by ecologist Frederick Edward Clements that has as ...

is classified as 38.7%

conifer forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

, 25%

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 Coun ...

, 15.9%

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

, 10% snow/glacier, 8.3%

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 ...

and small amounts of other cover.

Geography

Mess Creek originates from an

unnamed lake An unnamed lake is a body of water with no official nor generally agreed upon name. Such a lake is officially nameless though it may have one or more unofficial names used locally. This is common for many tiny lakes, farm ponds, and minor lakes i ...

behind an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

at . From its source the creek flows about north into

Mess Lake The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

and then continues northwest for another into the Stikine River. About midway through its course, Mess Creek is bounded on the east by the Mess Creek Escarpment. This is a long, often cliff-like feature forming the western edge of the

Mount Edziza volcanic complex The Mount Edziza volcanic complex ( ; abbreviated MEVC) is a group of volcanoes and associated lava flows in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located on the Tahltan Highland, it is southeast of Telegraph Creek and southwest of Dease Lak ...

. The final of Mess Creek flows through a gorge. Mess Creek contains seven named right tributaries. The first one is

Tadekho Creek Tadekho Creek is a tributary of Mess Creek and part of the Stikine River drainage basin, watershed in northwest part of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally northwest for roughly Lengths ...

which flows northwest into Mess Creek just south of Mess Lake. Kitsu Creek is the second named right tributary which flows northwest and then north into Mess Creek. The third named right tributary is Raspberry Creek which flows northwest into Mess Creek. Taweh Creek, the fourth named right tributary, flows northwest into Mess Creek west of

Mount Edziza Mount Edziza ( ; ) is a volcanic mountain in Cassiar Land District of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the Big Raven Plateau of the Tahltan Highland which extends along the western side of the Stikine Plateau. Mount Ed ...

. The fifth named right tributary, Crayke Creek, flows southwest into Mess Creek off Mount Edziza. Elwyn Creek is the sixth named right tributary which flows west into Mess Creek. The seventh named right tributary is Dagaichess Creek which flows southeast into Mess Creek just south of Telegraph Creek. Only two left tributaries of Mess Creek are named. The first one is Schaft Creek which flows north into Mess Creek on the west side of Mount Edziza Provincial Park. The other named left tributary, Tudadela Creek, flows north into Mess Creek.

Geology

Mess Creek flows through a long and narrow

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

-like depression bounded by steeply- dipping faults that extend to the north. A more than fault along the eastern edge of this structure shows signs of having been active contemporaneously with

volcanism of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex The Mount Edziza volcanic complex (MEVC) in British Columbia, Canada, has a history of volcanism that spans more than 7 million years. It has taken place during five cycles of magmatic activity, each producing less volcanic material than the ...

. It has vertically displaced

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

flows by and older basalt flows by , such that the western side of the fault has been downthrown. The downthrowing of this fault during the Holocene may have been due to the draining of

magma chamber A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it u ...

s following eruptions at the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. Two groups of hot springs occur along Mess Creek. The Mess Lake Hot Springs near the southeastern corner of Mess Lake have deposited massive

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitation (chemistry), precipitate out of water in ambient temperature, unheated rivers or lakes. hot spring, Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less ...

over an area of more than . Discharge at these hot springs may be linked to shallow

hydrothermal Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

systems driven by residual

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

tic heat as they are adjacent to The Ash Pit, a recently active eruptive centre of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. The Mess Creek Hot Springs south of Mess Lake have a recorded temperature of and may be discharging from a deeply circulating hydraulic system along a major fault on the western side of Mess Creek valley.

History

The historic Yukon Telegraph Trail runs along the eastern side of Mess Creek. It was built to serve the nearly Yukon Telegraph Line which was constructed by the Dominion Government Telegraph Service between 1897 and 1901 to send messages from

Ashcroft, British Columbia Ashcroft is a village municipality that straddles the Thompson River in the Thompson Country region of south central British Columbia, Canada. East of British Columbia Highway 1, BC Highway 1 and on British Columbia Highway 97C, BC Highway 97C, t ...

in the south to

Dawson City Dawson City is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest municipality in Yukon. History Prior t ...

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

in the north.

References

External links

*{{cite cgndb, id=JBOFG, title=Mess Creek Cassiar Land District Tahltan Highland Stikine Country Tahltan

Geography

Geology

History

See also

References

External links