Stikine River

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The Stikine River (sti-KEEN) is a river, approximately 335 mi (539 km) long, in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. Considered one of the last truly wild rivers in North America, it drains a rugged pristine area east of the Coast Mountains, cutting a fast-flowing course through the mountains in deep glacier-lined gorges to empty into an inlet in the Alexander Archipelago. The name of the river comes from its Tlingit name Shtax' Héen, meaning "cloudy river (with the milt of spawning salmon)", or alternately "bitter waters (from the tidal estuaries at its mouth)". Its watershed encompasses approximately 20,000 mi² (52,000 km²).

Description

The Stikine river arises in the plateau of the Stikine Mountains of northwest British Columbia, in Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park, and flows in a large arc through the mountains to the west and southwest, past Telegraph Creek. It passes through steeply-cut gorges in the Boundary Range along the Canada-U.S. border, in particular the spectacular 60 mi (100 km) long and 1,000-ft (300-m) deep Grand Canyon of the Stikine. It briefly enters southeast Alaska for its lower 40 mi (64 km) to form a delta opposite Mitkof Island, approximately 25 mi (40 km) north of Wrangell at the confluence of Frederick Sound and Sumner Strait.

It receives the Spatsizi River in the upper plateau in the Spatsizi Mountains.

History

The river is navigable for approximately 130 mi (210 km) upstream from its mouth. It was used by the coastal Tlingit as a transportation route to the interior region. The first European to explore the river was Samuel Black, who visited the headwaters during his Finlay River expedition in 1824. It was more extensively explored in 1838 by Robert Campbell, of the Hudson's Bay Company, completing the last link in the company's transcontinental canoe route. In 1879 the lower third was travelled by John Muir who likened it to a Yosemite that was a hundred miles (160 kilometers) long. Muir recorded over 300 glaciers along the river's course. The Grand Canyon of the Stikine been successfully navigated by a few expert whitewater kayakers.

From 1897-1898 it furnished one of the principal routes to the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon Territory. The river today furnishes the primary route to the Cassiar mining region of northern British Columbia. The first bridge was built across the river in the 1970s as part of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. In 1980, BC Hydro began to study the feasibility of building a five-dam project in the Grand Canyon, however the plan quickly led to opposition by conservation groups and a long struggle over the fate of the river. The mouth of the river in the United States provides a habitat for migratory birds and is protected as part of the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness Area.

The river is noted for its prolific salmon runs despite heavy depletion by commercial fish traps during the early 20th century. The force of the current in the river's Grand Canyon limits the salmon runs to the lower one-third of the river.

External links

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