The Cassiar Country, also referred to simply as the Cassiar, is a historical geographic region of the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. The Cassiar is located in the northwest portion of British Columbia, just to the northeast of the Stikine Country, while to the south is the

Omineca Country The Omineca Country, also called the Omineca District or the Omineca, is a historical geographic region of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, roughly defined by the basin of the Omineca River but including areas to the south which allowed ...

. The area is noted for the Cassiar gold rush of the 1870s, when Laketon became its unofficial capital. The ghost town of Cassiar is also located in the Cassiar region.

Collins Telegraph Line

In the early 1860s, Perry Collins obtained financing from

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...

Telegraph to build a

telegraph line Electrical telegraphy is point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most wide ...

from

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through British Columbia and

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and across the

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to Russia and ultimately

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. The line was begun in 1865 at

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, and continued as far as the

Skeena River The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose na ...

in 1866, but then the project was abandoned as the transatlantic line was built first, making the Collins line redundant. Despite the fact that the Collins line would not be completed, surveyors had created a primitive route from Quesnel to the newly established settlement of Telegraph Creek, thus opening up the northern districts of British Columbia for determined and hardy travelers.

Cassiar Gold Rush

In the 1870s a gold rush occurred in the region, based at McDame Creek and at Thibert Creek, a tributary of Dease Creek. In 1874, more than a million dollars' worth of gold was taken from the region and in 1877, one prospector found the largest

gold nugget A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of Native metal, native gold. Watercourses often concentrate nuggets and finer gold in placer deposit, placers. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits wher ...

ever recorded in British Columbia: a 72-ounce gold nugget, mined from McDame Creek. Much as the Stikine Country had been affected by the rush on 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 ...

, the Cassiar Gold Rush caused the government to show an interest in the area and John R Adams was appointed as government agent for the Cassiar region in 1873, and was followed by Judge J.H. Sullivan who became the region's gold commissioner. Laketon, also known as Dease Town became the unofficial capital of the Cassiar and at the height of the rush it had five stores, four hotels, two cafes and its own newspaper. Other gold rush towns were Porter Landing and Defot. However, by the 1880s most of the gold had been recovered and nearly all of the miners left the area, while only few merchants and Chinese miners remained behind. The region was also affected by the Klondike Gold Rush when in 1897–1898, 5000 miners went to the Yukon via the all Canadian route, up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek and overland to the Teslin River.

Later years

After the excitement of the gold rushes, the Cassiar was nearly forgotten until the early 1940s when the American

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built the Alaska Highway from

Dawson Creek Dawson Creek is a city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The municipality of had a population of 12,978 in 2016. Dawson Creek derives its name from the creek of the same name that runs through the community. The creek was named after ...

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, thus further opening up the area and providing ease of transportation. Small companies began gold mining with heavy equipment. Then, most notably, the early 1950s brought the Cassiar Asbestos Mine, which operated from 1953 until 1992 and produced the company town of Cassiar.

References

* ''Cassiar A Jewel in the Wilderness'' Suzanne Leblanc

External links

Cassiar… do you remember?
{{Financial bubbles Northern Interior of British Columbia

Collins Telegraph Line

Cassiar Gold Rush

Later years

See also

References

External links