The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands was a

British colony The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...

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 Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

. The Queen Charlotte Colony was created by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

in response to the increase in American marine trading activity resulting from the gold rush on Moresby Island in 1851. No separate administration or capital for the colony was ever established, as its only officer or appointee was James Douglas, who was simultaneously Governor of Vancouver Island. He was granted a commission as Lieutenant-Governor of the Queen Charlotte Islands in September 1852. While ostensibly the archipelago was a British colony, historical evidence, such as a seasonal mission of exploration to survey the islands as late as 1859 does not support the establishment of a permanent European settlement following the unsuccessful conclusion to the

Queen Charlottes Gold Rush The Queen Charlottes Gold Rush was a gold rush in southern Haida Gwaii of what is now the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, in 1851. The rush was touched off in March 1851 when a Haida man sold a nugget in Fort Victoria for 1,500 blankets ...

in 1853. Prior to and during its establishment as a nominative British colony, the archipelago was inhabited by groups belonging to the Haida people, which made up the sole population of the ostensible colony.

References

*Lillard, Charles
Just East of Sundown:The Queen Charlotte Islands
*Sage, W. N. (Walter Noble), 1888–1963. 1930. “Sir James Douglas and British Columbia.” B. BC Historical Books. oronto��: The University of Toronto Press. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0375702

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queen Charlotte Islands, Colony Of the Former British colonies and protectorates in the Americas Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands Pre-Confederation British Columbia Haida British North America 1863 disestablishments States and territories established in 1853 1853 establishments in Canada

See also

References