The Stikine Region () is an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northwestern

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 ...

, Canada. It is the only area in the province that is not part of a regional district. The Stikine Region was left unincorporated following legislation that established the province's regional districts in 1968 and is not classified as a regional district. It contains no municipal governments which normally constitute the majority of seats on the boards of regional districts. There is only one local planning area, the Atlin Community Planning Area, which was combined in 2009 with the Atlin Community Improvement District to provide fire, landfill, water, streetlighting, sidewalks and advisory land use services. All other services not provided privately are administered directly by various provincial government ministries. The area around Dease Lake, formerly in the Stikine Region, is now within the boundaries of the

Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine The Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine is a local government administration in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it had a population of 37,790 living on a land area of . Its administrative offices are in ...

following a boundary amendment in 2008. The Stikine Region has a total population of 740 (2016) including 355 First Nations persons, most from the Taku Tlingit of Atlin and Teslin, British Columbia, and some reserves of the Kaska Dena Council. Reserves and band governments are outside the jurisdiction of the provincial government which governs the Stikine Region directly through various ministry operations, as it is not an administrative body like a regional district and has no board. The 2006 census count was 1,109 persons. Until December 2007 it had an area of or about the size of the

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Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

or 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 ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

. Its population density of one inhabitant per makes it the least densely populated

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

in both British Columbia and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

as a whole.

Demographics

As a

in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, the Stikine Region had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. *Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Terminology

The term Stikine Region should not be confused with the terms Stikine Territory, Stikine District, or Stikine Country, which all mean something slightly different: *Half the historical Stikine Country, roughly synonymous with the Stikine Mining District of colonial times, as being the entire basin of that river, is in the

. *The Stikine Territory was a colonial-era entity which existed briefly and had boundaries differing from that of the Stikine Country ''per se'', being latitudinal on its eastern extent and so cutting across terrain rather than defined by it; its southern boundary was the line of the Finlay and Nass Rivers, while its northern boundary was the 62nd parallel, north of which was 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. Because of the lack of development, exploration, and cartographic limits of the time, the exact boun ...

. When the Stikine Territory was absorbed into British Columbia in 1863, the North-West Territory was expanded south to the 60th parallel and the merged Stikine Territory significantly reduced in size. In 1867, the former Stikine Territory was further reduced in size when British claims on the lisière portion of the

Alaska Panhandle Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to southeast or southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian provi ...

were ignored by both

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and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in course of the

Alaska Purchase The Alaska Purchase was the purchase of Russian colonization of North America, Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States for a sum of $7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to $ million in ). On May 15 of that year, the United St ...

.''Notes on the Alaska Boundary Question'', Alexander Begg, 1900 Even after that, British perceptions that British territory had included the sites of Skagway, Haines and Dyea were overruled in the settlement of the Alaska Boundary Dispute. Most of the Stikine Region, the boundaries of which reflect modern-era administrative realities, is composed of areas not part of the historical ''or'' geographical Stikine ''Country'' and the related ''Stikine Mining District'' but which ''were'' part of the Stikine Territory. These were the

Atlin District The Atlin District, also known as the Atlin Country, is a historical region located in the far northwestern corner of the Canadian province of British Columbia, centered on Atlin Lake and the gold-rush capital of the region, the town of Atlin. Th ...

and some of the Cassiar Mining Districts, as well as some of the Liard basin, plus the basin of the Tatshenshini- Alsekin the "BC Panhandle" west of Skagway and north of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

's Glacier Bay National Park. In the 2001 Census, Statistics Canada enumerated the following list of "Designated Places". None of them are municipalitiesthey are a mixture of Indian Reserves (IR; names end in numbers) and "

Indian settlement An Indian settlement is a census subdivision outlined by the Canadian government Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acqui ...

s" (aboriginal communities that are not formally identified as Indian Reserves), which are geographically within the boundaries of the Stikine Region Regional District Electoral Area, with the following populations as per the 2006 Canadian Census: It is bordered by the Yakutat, Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon,

Juneau Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of wha ...

and Haines boroughs of the US state of

to the west,

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

to the north (which has no county-like system of division), the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and

Peace River Regional District The Peace River Regional District is a regional district in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The regional district comprises seven municipalities and four electoral areas. Its member municipalities are the cities of Fort St. John and Da ...

to the east, and the Regional Districts of Bulkley–Nechako and Kitimat–Stikine to the south.

Mining industry

The principal economic activity in the region is mining. The region's largest mine was the Cassiar asbestos mine which opened in 1952. The mine was depleted by 1991 and after a failed expansion to more underground deposits, it was closed in early 1992. The Erickson Gold mine was operational from 1979 to 1988. The Taurus gold mine operated between 1982 and 1988. Both were planned to re-open in 1993–1994 but neither was able. The Golden Bear gold-silver mine operated between 1990 and 1993 before closing due to cost overruns. It was re-opened in 1997 after shifting to underground mining, from open-pit, but closed again in late 2001. The new Tulsequah Chief Mine on the Tulsequah River, a tributary of the Taku, south of the Atlin Country and just inside the international boundary to the north of Juneau, Alaska, with an estimated at 7.7million tonscontaining copper, lead, zinc, gold and silveris under construction.

Preservation

A major discovery of copper, gold, cobalt, silver and zinc was removed from mining potential with the establishment in 1993 of the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, located in the province's northwesternmost panhandle. The park's establishment ended plans to build the Windy Craggy Mine

megaproject A megaproject is an extremely large-scale construction and investment project. A more general definition is "Megaprojects are temporary endeavours (i.e. projects) characterised by: large investment commitment, vast complexity (especially in org ...

. The area is now part of a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

with Kluane National Park and Glacier Bay National Monument, which flank it to the north and south. Other provincial parks in the Stikine Region include the

Atlin Provincial Park and Recreation Area Atlin may either be: *Atlin Lake, one of British Columbia's largest lakes *Atlin, British Columbia, a town in the far northwest of British Columbia, named for the lake, centre of a Klondike-era gold rush *Atlin Road, road in Yukon and British Colum ...

and the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park. Though much of the Stikine Region is unprotected, the area's remoteness and unusual subarctic landscapes, and location along one of only two overland routes to the Yukon and Alaska, are attracting a growing amount of tourist traffic and generating employment in outfitting, guiding and hunting.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Subdivisions of British Columbia, region=yes Regional districts of British Columbia Stikine Country Unincorporated areas of Canada