The Stikine Country , also referred to as the Stikine District or simply "the Stikine", is one of the historical geographic regions of the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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 ...

, located inland from the central

Alaska Panhandle Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to southeast or southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian provi ...

and comprising the basin 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 ...

and its tributaries. The term Stikine–Iskut (alone or in various combination forms "District", "Country", "Region") is also fairly common to describe the area, and references the Iskut River, the Stikine's largest tributary and describable as its south fork.

Geography

The basin of the Stikine is sparsely populated, mostly by members 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, though the lower reaches are the territory of group of the

Tlingit The Tlingit or Lingít ( ) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. , they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; ...

people centred on

Wrangell, Alaska Wrangell (, ) is a List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska, borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010. Incorporated as a consolidated city–county ...

, which is on Etolin Island just outside the mouth of the Stikine. The region is noted for its rugged and unusual mix of glaciated ranges, semi-arid subarctic volcanic plateaux and cones, and deep river canyons, most of all the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, which was described by naturalist

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...

as "the northern

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is a national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service ...

". Also notable and rather famous on the river's course is the

Great Glacier Great Glacier Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Stikine Country region of British Columbia, Canada. It was established on January 25, 2001 to protect Great Glacier and the surrounding mountainous terrain. The park lies in the tradition ...

, which fronts along the river's right (west) bank a few miles north of the Alaska frontier.

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 ...

, Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park and

Stikine River Provincial Park The Stikine River Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia. The park covers a total area of approximately . The main feature of the Stikine River Provincial Park is a portion of the Stikine River The Stikine River ( ) is a ma ...

are the largest provincial parks in the region, which continues to be heavily explored for mineral potentials since first opened up by the

Stikine Gold Rush The Stikine Gold Rush was a minor but important gold rush in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The rush's discoverer was Alexander "Buck" Choquette, who staked a claim at Choquette Bar in 1861, just downstream from the ...

of the 1860s, which forced the creation of the

Stikine Territory The Stickeen Territories , also colloquially rendered as Stickeen Territory, Stikine Territory, and Stikeen Territory, was a territory of British North America whose brief existence began July 19, 1862, and concluded July of the following year. Th ...

, soon afterwards absorbed into the

Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada: * Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) * Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) See also * History of ...

. The term "Stikine District" was also used in reference to the Stikine Mining District, an administrative jurisdiction. Today the term

Stikine Region The Stikine Region () is an unincorporated area in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is the only area in the province that is not part of a regional district. The Stikine Region was left unincorporated following legislation that establi ...

is a British Columbia administrative district, similar to a Regional District but not fully qualified as one, but it does not include all of the Stikine Country and comprises mostly the

Cassiar Country The Cassiar Country, also referred to simply as the Cassiar, is a historical geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Cassiar is located in the northwest portion of British Columbia, just to the northeast of the Stikine ...

and

Atlin District The Atlin District, also known as the Atlin Country, is a historical region located in the far northwestern corner of the Canadian province of British Columbia, centered on Atlin Lake and the gold-rush capital of the region, the town of Atlin. Th ...

, which are to the north and northwest of the Stikine Country, respectively. The largest town in the district is Telegraph Creek, which lies on a side-road to the west of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, which traverses the region from north to south, connecting parts of British Columbia farther south with the

Yukon Territory Yukon () is a 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 westernmost territory and the smallest ...

to the north. To the northeast of the Stikine Country is another region known as the

, and to its southeast is the

Omineca Country The Omineca Country, also called the Omineca District or the Omineca, is a historical geographic region of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, roughly defined by the basin of the Omineca River but including areas to the south which allowed ...

(both of which had also at one time been "Mining Districts" resulting from their own gold rushes).

History

The region was the traditional home of the Taku and Inland

people who by the 19th century settled around what was to become the gold rush town of Atlin. Other

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

such as the Tahltan settled at Telegraph Creek and Dease Lake. The

Sekani Sekani or Tse’khene are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the northern interior of British Columbia. Their territory includes the Finlay and Parsnip River drainages of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The n ...

lived along the Finlay and

Parsnip River The Parsnip River is a long river in central British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally north-westward from the Parsnip Glacier in the Hart Ranges to the Parsnip Reach of Williston Lake, formed by the impounding of the waters of the Peace R ...

s, while in the east the Kaska people occupied the Liard and

Dease River Dease may refer to: * Dease Strait, a strait in Nunavut, Canada * Dease Lake (British Columbia), a lake in BC, Canada ** Dease Lake, a town in BC, Canada *** Dease Lake Airport (CYDL), an airport in BC, Canada *** Dease Lake Highway, a highway in ...

s and eventually settled along

McDame Creek McDame Creek is a creek in Cassiar Land District of British Columbia, Canada. The creek flows southeast into Dease River and is south of Good Hope Lake. The creek was discovered in 1874 by a prospector, named Harry McDame. McDame Creek was mined f ...

. Non native exploration of the district did not occur until the 1770s with the arrival of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

fur traders, who never traveled beyond the coastal areas, but relied on the Tlingits to provide the pelts from the inland animals. With the construction of a fort at Fort Wrangell, the Russian fur traders held a monopoly in the region until the 1830s when Fort Taku and Fort Stikine were both built on the Stikine River by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

Stikine Gold Rush

On September 12, 1861, the Victoria newspaper, the ''British Colonist'', reported a rumor that gold had been discovered on the Stikine River, and by the following spring, more than 200 miners struck out for the Cassiar. Sixty of them went on a sternwheeler, the ''Flying Dutchman'', owned by Captain William Moore. While the rush did not settle the area, as had the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

or the

Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Ri ...

in their respective regions, it did draw the attention of British Columbia’s Governor James Douglas, who petitioned the British government to create the Stikine Territory from the line of the Finlay and Skeena Rivers, which were the Colony of British Columbia's northern boundary, north to the 62nd parallel and east to the 125th meridian. The territory was established in 1862, and a year later it was merged into the

Collins Telegraph Line

In the early 1860s,

Perry Collins Perry McDonough Collins (1813–1900)
timeline at frontiers.loc.govCorday Mackay
Western Union Telegraph to build a

telegraph line Electrical telegraphy is point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most wide ...

from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

through British Columbia and

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 ...

and across the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and ultimately

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The line was begun in 1865 at

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the cap ...

, and continued as far as 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 na ...

in 1866, but then the project was abandoned because the transatlantic line was built first, making the Collins line redundant. Despite the fact that the line would not be completed, surveyors had created a primitive route from Quesnel to the newly established settlement of Telegraph Creek, thus opening up the district for travel. The region was also affected by the Klondike Gold Rush when in 1897–1898, 5000 miners went to the

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 ...

via the all Canadian route, up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek and overland to the Teslin River.

References

* ''Cassiar A Jewel in the Wilderness'' Suzanne Leblanc {{Subdivisions of British Columbia, regions=yes Northern Interior of British Columbia