Hyder is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 87 at the 2010 census, down from 97 in 2000. Hyder is accessible by road only from Stewart,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, is popular with motorists wishing to visit Alaska without driving the length of the Alaska Highway, and is otherwise landlocked. It is the southernmost community in the state that can be reached via car (others can be reached only by boat or plane). Hyder is Alaska's easternmost town.

Geography

Hyder is located at (55.941442, -130.054504), at the end of the land border between Alaska and British Columbia and at the head of the

Portland Canal , image = Hyder Alaska IMG 0276 (22495379342).jpg , alt = , caption = Portland Canal from Hyder, Alaska , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Alaska and British Columbia , group = , coordinates ...

, a long fjord which forms a portion of the border at the southeastern edge of the Alaska Panhandle. It sits about from Stewart, British Columbia by road, and from

Ketchikan Ketchikan ( ; tli, Kichx̱áan) is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District. With a population at the 20 ...

by air. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land.

Climate

Hyder has a fairly typical Southeastern Alaskan oceanic climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Cfb''), although using the coldest-month isotherm it has an extremely wet and ocean-moderated version of a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

''Dfb'') similar to that of Haines although substantially wetter.

Demographics

Hyder first appeared on the 1920 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It was chosen as the central part of its same-named census-designated place (CDP) in 1980. As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 97 people, 47 households, and 25 families residing in the CDP. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 6.5 people per square mile (2.5/km²). There were 72 housing units at an average density of 4.9 per square mile (1.9/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 93

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, and 4 from two or more races. There was 1

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example, by the United States ...

of any race. There were 47 households, out of which 9 had children under the age of 18 living with them, 24 were married couples living together, 1 had a female householder with no husband present, and 21 were non-families. 19 of all households were made up of individuals, and 3 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.06 and the average family size was 2.81. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 18 under 18, 11 from 18 to 24, 16 from 25 to 44, 45 from 45 to 64, and 7 who were 65 or older. The median age was 46 years. There were 44 females and 53 males, of them 34 females were age 18 and over, as were 45 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $11,719, and the median income for a family was $30,500. Males had a median income of $56,250 versus $13,750 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the CDP was $11,491. There were 44.4% of families and 54.1% of the population living below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 81.0% under 18, and 50.0% over 64.

Transportation

2015-08-07 Salmon Glacier, BC, Canada 1016

Stewart, British Columbia, immediately borders Hyder and is accessible by road via International Street. Outside of the town site, NFD-88 heads in a northerly direction winding through the Tongass National Forest, and enters the outer extent of Stewart's municipal limits continuing as Granduc Road. There are few local roads, and no roads connect Hyder to any other Alaskan communities, except through Canada. The AMHS ferry that once connected Hyder to

stopped running in the 1990s, leaving the Taquan Air floatplane that arrives twice a week with U.S. Mail at

Hyder Seaplane Base Hyder Seaplane Base is a state owned, public use seaplane base located one nautical mile (2 km) southeast of the central business district of Hyder, a community in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is i ...

as the only direct public transportation between Hyder and the rest of Alaska.

Local services

There are few local services in town: * US Postal Service * US Forest Service Info Kiosk and observation site * Hyder Community Association, home to museum, information center and library

Public utilities

Hyder's public utilities are imported from Canada. Electricity is maintained by a subsidiary of BC Hydro, the Tongass Power and Light Company as part of a long-term contract with the town. While most of Alaska is in

area code 907 Area code 907 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of Alaska, except for the small southeastern community of Hyder, which uses area codes 236, 250, and 778 of neighboring Stewart, British Colum ...

, Hyder shares the Stewart 749 exchange in area code 236, 636 in

area code 250 Area code 250 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Canadian province of British Columbia outside the Lower Mainland, including Vancouver Island–home to the provincial capital, Victoria–and the province's ...

, and 794 in

area code 778 Area codes 778, 236, and 672 are area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the entire Canadian province of British Columbia. They form an overlay complex with area code 604, which serves only a small southwestern section, the Lo ...

Public safety

Alaska State Troopers The Alaska State Troopers, officially the Division of Alaska State Troopers (AST), is the state police agency of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a division of the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS). The Alaska State Troopers is a full-se ...

occasionally patrol the town, but do not have a base there. In 1996, during an Independence Day fireworks display, the organizers accidentally burned down their fire hall with the fire engine inside. Ambulances and fire fighters from Stewart can operate in Hyder. A Canada Border Services Agency customs post is on the only connecting road out of Hyder and there is no complementary American border patrol presence.

History

2015-08-07 Fish Creek, Hyder, Alaska 0858

The

Nisga'a The Nisga’a , often formerly spelled Nishga and spelled in the Nisga'a language as (pronounced ), are an Indigenous people of Canada in British Columbia. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The name is a ...

, who lived around the

Nass River The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance. Nass Bay joins Portland In ...

, called the head of Portland Canal "Skam-A-Kounst," meaning ''safe place'', probably because it served them as a retreat from the harassment of the Haidas on the coast. They traveled in the area seasonally to pick berries. The area around the Portland Canal was explored in 1896 by Captain D.D. Gaillard of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1898, gold and silver lodes were discovered in the region, mainly on the Canadian side, in the upper Salmon River basin. The Stewart brothers, for whom the British Columbia

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

was named, arrived in 1902. Hyder was established in 1907 as "Portland City", after the canal. In 1914, when the US Post Office Department told residents that there were many U.S. communities named Portland, it was renamed ''Hyder'', after Frederick Hyder, a Canadian mining engineer who envisioned a bright future for the area. Hyder was the only practical point of access to the silver mines in Canada; the community became the port, supply point, and post office for miners by 1917. Hyder's boom years were the 1920s, when the Riverside Mine on the U.S. side extracted gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and tungsten. The mine operated from 1924 to 1950. In 1928, the Hyder business district was consumed by fire. By 1956 all significant mining had ceased, except for the Granduc Mine on the Canadian side, which operated until 1984 and 2010 to present. Westmin Resources Ltd operated a gold and silver mine on the Canadian side in Premier, British Columbia but is not currently active.

Culture

Hyder is accessible by highway from Stewart, which connects with the British Columbia highway system. In the mid-2010s, Hyder residents said that more than 100,000 tourists came to Hyder annually. It is the location of the annual Hyder Seek gathering of long-distance motorcyclists who travel from all over North America each Memorial Day weekend. It became popular with long distance motorcycle riders in 1998 when author Ron Ayres set a record of riding to the contiguous 48 states in six days. Ayres went on to add to the 48-state record by continuing on to Hyder to establish a new 49-state record of 7 days, 0 hours and 20 minutes. Ayres named the new long distance ride the "48 Plus" and it has become popular with members of the long-distance motorcycle riding

Iron Butt Association The Iron Butt Association (IBA) is a US-based organization dedicated to safe long-distance motorcycle riding, which claims membership of over 75,000 people. The IBA is a loose-knit organization with only one way to earn membership: ride one of t ...

. Hyder was the starting point of the 2014 coast-to-coast Scooter Cannonball Run, which ended in New Orleans, Louisiana. Because of its accessible proximity to Stewart, and its isolation from other communities in Alaska, Hyder has many commonalities with its Canadian neighbor, with both American and Canadian holidays observed, and a shared international Chamber of Commerce. It is the only place in Alaska not to use the 907 area code, instead using British Columbia's

250 __NOTOC__ Year 250 (Roman numerals, CCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Gratus (or, less frequently, y ...

. Although Hyder is officially in the

Alaska Time Zone The Alaska Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting nine hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−09:00). During daylight saving time its time offset is eight hours ( UTC−08:00). The clock time in this zone is based on mean solar ...

, residents set their clocks to British Columbia's

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

. Both American and Canadian currency are accepted, except by the U.S. Post Office, which accepts only American dollars. A local tradition is known as being "Hyderized", with two of the town's bars issuing certificates to patrons who consume a shot of 151 proof (75.5% alcohol) Everclear.

Education

Southeast Island School District operates the Hyder School.Hyder School
" Southeast Island School District. Retrieved on June 2, 2019. Children who live in Hyder have attended the Bear Valley School in Stewart, but Hyder has school when the community meets the Alaska minimum of 10 children for the state to provide a teacher.

References

External links

Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site
* (requires Javascript) {{Authority control Border irregularities of the United States Census-designated places in Alaska Census-designated places in Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, Alaska Census-designated places in Unorganized Borough, Alaska Mining communities in Alaska Populated coastal places in Alaska on the Pacific Ocean Exclaves in the United States