The Stickeen Territories , also colloquially rendered as Stickeen Territory, Stikine Territory, and Stikeen Territory, was a

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...

whose brief existence began July 19, 1862, and concluded July of the following year. The region was split from the

North-Western Territory The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America extant until 1870 and named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land. Due to the lack of development, exploration, and cartographic limits of the time, the exact boundarie ...

in the wake of the

Stikine Gold Rush The Stikine Gold Rush was a minor but important gold rush in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The rush's discoverer was Alexander "Buck" Choquette, who staked a claim at Choquette Bar in 1861, just downstream from the ...

. The initial strike attracted large numbers of miners — mostly American — to the region; by detaching the region from the exclusive trade zone of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

, British authorities were able to impose tariffs and licences on the speculators. The new territory, named after the

Stikine River The Stikine River 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 f ...

, was under the responsibility of the Governor of the

Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada: *Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) *Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) See also *History of Br ...

, James Douglas, who was appointed "Administrator of the Stickeen Territories" and under British law, within the jurisdiction of the

Supreme Court of British Columbia Supreme may refer to: Entertainment * Supreme (character), a comic book superhero * ''Supreme'' (film), a 2016 Telugu film * Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer * "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams * The Supremes, Motown-e ...

. The boundaries of the territory were the 62nd parallel to the north, the 125th meridian to the east, the Nass and

Finlay River The Finlay River is a 402 km long river in north-central British Columbia flowing north and thence south from Thutade Lake in the Omineca Mountains to Williston Lake, the impounded waters of the Peace River formed by the completion of the W.A. ...

s to the south, and the panhandle of

Russian America Russian America (russian: Русская Америка, Russkaya Amerika) was the name for the Russian Empire's colonial possessions in North America from 1799 to 1867. It consisted mostly of present-day Alaska in the United States, but a ...

to the west (only vaguely defined by treaty and disputed until resolved with the

Alaska Boundary Settlement The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which then controlled Canada's foreign relations. It was resolved by arbitration in 1903. The dispute had existed ...

of 1903).''British Columbia: From the earliest times to the Present, Vol. II, pp. 84-85'', E.O.S. Scholefield and F.W. Howay, publ. 1914
/ref> A year later, the Stickeen was added to the

(along with the

Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands was a British colony constituting the archipelago of the same name from 1853 to 1858, when it was amalgamated into the Colony of British Columbia. In 2010 the archipelago was renamed Haida Gwaii. The Q ...

), except for the sector north of the 60th parallel, which was returned to the

. In 1895, this strip was again redistributed, this time to the District of Yukon, as newly constituted during the midst of the Klondike Gold Rush.

References

{{coord, 58, 01, 00, N, 131, 00, 00, W, display=title, source:ThatlanBCarticle, name=Stickeen Territories Hudson's Bay Company Pre-Confederation British Columbia British North America Stikine Country States and territories established in 1862 1862 establishments in the British Empire Former British colonies and protectorates in the Americas