Stikine River - History

History

The river is navigable for approximately 210 km (130 mi) 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 long". Muir recorded over 300 glaciers along the river's course. The Grand Canyon of the Stikine has been successfully navigated by less than 50 expert whitewater kayakers. It is considered one of the world's most difficult whitewater rivers in that particular section.

From 1897 to 1898 it furnished one of the laboureous routes to the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory. Several railway schemes were floated to provide an "All Canadian" route to the Dawson goldfields—A Teslin Railway, Omineca Railway, and the Canadian Yukon Railway promoted by the CPR. Railway contractors were hired and ready to build the route, though the Federal Senate and American government prevented the five hundred mile project from proceeding. Several river steamers were built to haul materials to Glenora to aid the project.The first road 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, and to its lower tributaries.