Stikine Region

Stikine Region (pronEng|stəˈkiːn) is the northwesternmost region in the Canadian province of British Columbia. An unorganized area, it emcompasses the only area in B.C. not in a Regional District. It has a total population of 1,352 (2004 est.) including 282 First Nations persons. The 2006 census count was 1,109 persons. It has an area of 132,496.2 sq. kilometers (51,157.07 sq mi). Its one person per 100 km² makes it the least densely inhabitated census division in British Columbia and least densely inhabited census division in Canada.

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 Kitimat-Stikine Regional District. 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 in part and so cutting across terrain rather than defined by it. 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, such as the Atlin District and some of the Cassiar Mining Districts, as well as some of the Liard basin, plus the basin of the Tatshenshini-Alsek in the "BC Panhandle" west of Skagway and north of Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park.

In the 2001 Census, Statistics Canada enumerated the following list of "Designated Places". None of them are municipalities - they are a mixture of Indian Reserves (names end in numbers), "Indian Settlements" (aboriginal communities that are not formally identified as Indian Reserves) and one arbitrarily-delimited "unincorporated place" (Dease Lake, which is administratively within the Stikine Region Regional District Electoral Area), with the following populations (2006 Canadian Census):
It is bordered by the Yakutat, Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon, Juneau and Haines boroughs of the U.S. state of Alaska to the west, the Yukon Territory to the north (which has no county-like system of division), the Northern Rockies and Peace River regional districts to the east, and the Bulkley-Nechako and Kitimat-Stikine regional districts to the south.

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, south of Atlin, with an estimated at 7.7 million tons containing copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver is under construction.

A major discovery of copper, gold, cobalt, silver and zinc was removed from mining potential with the establishment of the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, located in the region western-most panhandle, in 1993. Other provincial parks in the region include the Atlin Provincial Park and Recreation Area, Stikine River Provincial Park, Mount Edziza Provincial Park and the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park. The parks, and the region’s remoteness, are attracting a growing number of tourist and generating employment in outfitting, guiding and hunting.

ee also

*Stikine Country
*Stikine Territory

References

* [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/Profil01/CP01/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CD&Code1=5957&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=Stikine&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=59&B1=All&Custom= Community Profile: Stikine Region, British Columbia; Statistics Canada]
* [http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/cen01/profiles/59057000.pdf BC Stats profile]
* [http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/maps/RDMaps2001/RD57.pdf Map with place names]