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 British Columbia, 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).
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[edit] Description
The Stikine river arises in the Spatsizi Plateau of the Stikine Ranges of northern British Columbia, and flows in a large northward arc through the mountains to the west and southwest, past Telegraph Creek. It passes through a steeply-cut gorge in the Boundary Ranges along the Canada-U.S. border, and above that 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.
[edit] An international river
The outlet of the river is now in Alaska, but at the time of the boundary survey in 1901-03 it had been at the boundary; the lower part of the river has since filled in from aggradation. According to the terms of the treaty, as per prior usage by mining and commercial traffic in the Stikine, Canadian marine traffic technically has the right of navigation of this river from the sea, independent of US border controls, but this is no longer in practical effect through disuse and because of the relocation of the river's mouth.
Its main tributaries are, in descending order from source:
- Duti River
- Chukachida River
- Spatsizi River
- Pitman River
- McBride River
- Klappan River
- Tanzilla River
- Tuya River
- Tahltan River
- Chutine River
- Iskut River
[edit] 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 has 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.
