Stikine
Stikine is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 57.94°, -129.61°
About Stikine
The Stikine River ( stick-EEN) 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 south for 610 kilometres (379 mi), it empties into various straits of the Inside Passage near Wrangell, Alaska. About 90 percent of the river's length and 95 percent of its drainage basin are in Canada. Considered one of the last truly wild large rivers in BC, the Stikine flows through a variety of landscapes including boreal forest, steep canyons and wide glacial valleys.
Known as the "fastest-flowing navigable river in North America," the Stikine forms a natural waterway from northern interior British Columbia to the Pacific coast. The river has been used for millennia by indigenous peoples including the Tlingit, and Tahltan for fishing, hunting, and trade. It provided access for fur traders and prospectors during the 1800s and remained an important transportation route until the 1970s, when roads were finally opened to the northern interior.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Stikine River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Stikine in Depth
Geography
The Stikine River basin covers about 50,900 km2 (19,700 mi2) in the Stikine Region, and Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine, BC, with a small portion in the City and Borough of Wrangell, Alaska. Most of the Stikine basin corresponds with the southern half of the Stikine Plateau, a vast and mostly forested region of dissected plateaus, rolling hills and narrow valleys in northwest BC. The Stikine Plateau is bordered on the east by the Cassiar Mountains and Omineca Mountains and on the south by the Stikine Ranges of the Skeena Mountains. All three ranges are part of BC's Interior Mountains. To the west are the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, which run along the U.S.–Canada border.
History and culture
The Stikine River creates one of the only natural passages through the Coast Mountains, and for thousands of years it has been used as a trade route by indigenous peoples. The river has great cultural significance for indigenous peoples; the adjacent headwaters of the Stikine, Skeena River and Nass Rivers in the Klappan Range are known to the Tahltan as Klabona, the Sacred Headwaters. The lower Stikine and Iskut rivers are home to "a high number of aboriginal cultural heritage sites, including old villages, legend sites and traditional fishing areas."
Archeological sites in southeast Alaska suggest that the first humans arrived in this region about 10,000 years ago, around the end of the last glaciation, when ice dams that had previously blocked the Stikine were receding.
Geology
The Stikine basin includes several major terranes or crustal fragments that accreted to the western North American continent starting from about 180 million years ago. The Stikine Plateau roughly corresponds with the northern part of the Stikine Terrane ("Stikinia"), part of the larger Intermontane Belt complex. The Cassiar and Omineca Mountains to the east are formed from granite batholith remnants of an ancient continental volcanic arc (the Omineca Arc) which arose as a result of subduction following Stikinia's collision with the North American continent. The Coast Mountains, to the west, are formed in the same manner by the later collision of the Insular Belt terrane with the Intermontane terrane.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Stikine River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Stikine: Key Facts
| Length | 539 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 1,580 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 52,000 km² |
| Mouth | Pacific Ocean |
| Drainage system | Stikine River basin |
| Tributaries | Iskut River, Tuya River, Chutine River, Porcupine River, Klappan River, Choquette River, Spatsizi River, Tahltan River |
Facts from Wikidata Q2092571 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Stikine: Quick Answers
- Where is Stikine?
- Stikine is located in Canada and United States, at 57.9362° N, 129.6092° W.
- Are there dams on the Stikine?
- No dam on the Stikine is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.