Hyder is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a 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 counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

, 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 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 , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

. 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 Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, 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 Overlooking the Salmon Glacier, the Granduc Mine is a large copper mine which is situated on a rock ridge between a glacier and a cliff, some north of Stewart, BC at the north end of Summit Lake. It was an active mine from 1964 to 1984, having clo ...

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. 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

Culture

Education

See also

References

External links