Interior Mountains

Interior Mountains
Northern Interior Mountains
"Interior Ranges"

Satellite photo of the Spectrum Range
Dimensions
Area 221,310 km2 (85,450 sq mi)
Geography
Country Canada
Province/Territory British Columbia and Yukon
Range coordinates 57°55′36.8″N 126°50′53.9″W / 57.926889°N 126.848306°W / 57.926889; -126.848306Coordinates: 57°55′36.8″N 126°50′53.9″W / 57.926889°N 126.848306°W / 57.926889; -126.848306
Parent range Interior System
This article is about a certain group of mountain ranges in the Northern Interior of British Columbia and southern Yukon, as defined by a government-commissioned geographic study which forms the basis for the provincial gazette. For other mountain ranges of the British Columbia Interior and southern Yukon see Rocky Mountains, Columbia Mountains, Cascade Mountains and the subranges listed on the Interior Plateau article. For the region of British Columbia known as "The Interior", see British Columbia Interior.

The Interior Mountains, also called the Northern Interior Mountains and Interior Ranges, are the semi-official names[1] for a huge area that comprises much of the northern two thirds of the Canadian province of British Columbia and a large area of southern Yukon.

There are four main groupings, the Skeena, Cassiar and Omineca Mountains to the north of the Interior Plateau between the Coast Mountains to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east, and the Hazelton Mountains along the Interior Plateau's northwestern flank against the Coast Mountains, extending from the Bulkley Ranges south to the Bella Coola River. Included within the Interior Mountains system is the Stikine Plateau, which contains a number of sub-plateaus and various mountain ranges and is located west of the Cassiars, north of the Skeenas, and to the east of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains.

Most of the thousands of summits in the Interior Mountains are unnamed, and they are mostly uninhabited and undeveloped.

Component ranges and plateaus

Notable summits and features, if any, are included.

Cassiar Mountains

Dease Plateau

Sifton Ranges

Stikine Ranges

Hazelton Mountains

Nass Ranges

Kispiox Range

Bulkley Ranges

Tahtsa Ranges

Omineca Mountains

Finlay Ranges

Hogem Ranges

Swannell Ranges

Skeena Mountains

Stikine Plateau

Nahlin Plateau

Spatsizi Plateau

Tagish Highland

NB sometimes defined as part of the Coast Mountains

Tahltan Highland

NB sometimes defined as part of the Coast Mountains

Taku Plateau

NB sometimes defined as part of the Yukon Plateau

Tanzilla Plateau

Parks, Protected Areas and Ecological Reserves

National Parks

Provincial Parks and Protected Areas

Park and preservation proposals

See also

References

  1. ↑ Both terms were coined by British Columbia government geographer Stuart Holland in the course of writing his Landforms of British Columbia, which is a definitive volume on the province's topography and toponymy written in 1964. This work is used as the basis for official toponymies such as those in the provincial gazette and the British Columbia Geographic Names Information System Database (BCGNIS), which is the official registry of the province's geographic names. The term Interior Mountains, used by Holland throughout his work and as a chapter heading describing the mountain system in question, is not present in the Geographical Names Database despite being a chapter heading and appearing on Holland's map of the province's landform systems. He suggests, also, the term "Northern Interior Mountains", partly because the mountain system is in a region also known as the Northern Interior, but also to potentially distinguish this mountain system from mountain ranges farther south in the province's Interior, including many on the Interior Plateau. In his exegesis he decides on interior Mountains for reasons of brevity.
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