Cassiar Country

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Laketon
Cassiar Country
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Laketon
Location of Laketon in the Cassiar Country in British Columbia
Coordinates: 58°42′00″N130°06′00″W / 58.70000°N 130.10000°W / 58.70000; -130.10000 Coordinates: 58°42′00″N130°06′00″W / 58.70000°N 130.10000°W / 58.70000; -130.10000
CountryFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
Province Flag of British Columbia.svg  British Columbia
Area code(s) 250, 778

The Cassiar Country, also referred to simply as the Cassiar, is a historical geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. 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 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.

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Collins Telegraph Line

In the early 1860s, Perry Collins obtained financing from Western Union Telegraph to build a telegraph line from San Francisco through British Columbia and Alaska and across the Bering Strait to Russia and ultimately Europe.

The line was begun in 1865 at New Westminster, and continued as far as the Skeena River 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

Porter Landing, Cassiar (1926) Porter Landing, Cassiar, British Columbia.gif
Porter Landing, Cassiar (1926)

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 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 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 military built the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, 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.

See also

Related Research Articles

Stewart–Cassiar Highway Highway in British Columbia

The Stewart–Cassiar Highway, also known as the Dease Lake Highway and the Stikine Highway as well as the Terrace–Kitimat Highway from Kitimat to Terrace, is the northwesternmost highway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. A scenic route through some of the province's most isolated areas, the highway first gained designation as British Columbia Highway 37 in 1975. At that time, its southern terminus was at the community of New Hazelton on the BC Highway 16. In 1979, with the completion of a new bridge, the highway's Yellowhead junction was relocated to a point on Highway 16 just south of the site of Kitwanga. Highway 37 was then extended south to Kitimat in 1986, using a stretch of road that was previously designated Highway 25. At the north end, the highway briefly stretches into Yukon, becoming Yukon Highway 37.

Stikine River River in British Columbia and Alaska

The Stikine River is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 kilometres (380 mi) long, in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and in southeast Alaska in the United States.

Nellie Cashman

Ellen "Nellie" Cashman, was an Irish nurse, restaurateur, businesswoman and philanthropist in Arizona, Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon.

Telegraph Creek Place in British Columbia, Canada

Telegraph Creek is a small community located off Highway 37 in Northern British Columbia at the confluence of the Stikine River and Telegraph Creek. The only permanent settlement on the Stikine River, it is home to approximately 250 members of Tahltan First Nation and non-native residents. The town offers basic services, including Anglican and Catholic churches, a general store, a post office, a clinic with several nurses on-call around the clock, two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, and a K-9 school. Steep river banks and rocky gorges form the terraced nature of the geography.

Dease Lake Unincorporated community in British Columbia, Canada

Dease Lake is a small community located in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located a few hours south of the Yukon border on Stewart–Cassiar Highway at the south end of the lake of the same name. Dease Lake is the last major centre before the Alaska Highway while driving north bound, and also the junction to Telegraph Creek and the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. Dease Lake Indian Reserve No. 9 is located nearby and is under the governance of the Tahltan First Nation band government.

Stikine Country

The Stikine Country, also referred to as the Stikine District or simply "the Stikine", is one of the historical geographic regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located inland from the central Alaska Panhandle and comprising the basin of the Stikine River and its tributaries. The term Stikine–Iskut is also fairly common to describe the area, and references the Iskut River, the Stikine's largest tributary and describable as its south fork.

The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada in the Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush didn't begin until late in 1869 with the discovery at Vital Creek. There were several routes to the goldfields: two were from Fort St. James, one of which was a water route through the Stuart and Tachie Rivers to Trembleur Lake to Takla Lake and the other was overland, called the Baldy Mountain route. A third route came in overland from Hazelton on the Skeena River and a fourth route used the Fraser River and crossed over the Giscome Portage to Summit Lake, through McLeod Lake, and up the Finlay River to the Omineca River.

William Moore (steamship captain)

William Moore was a steamship captain, businessman, miner and explorer in British Columbia and Alaska. During most of British Columbia's gold rushes Moore could be found at the center of activity, either providing transportation to the miners, working claims or delivering mail and supplies.

Glenora, British Columbia Human settlement in British Columbia, Canada

Glenora, also known historically as the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Glenora and during the Cassiar Gold Rush as Glenora Landing, was an unincorporated settlement in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It was located on the banks of the Stikine River, just southwest and approximately 13 miles downstream from the community of Telegraph Creek.

Dease Lake (British Columbia) Lake in Canada

Dease Lake is a lake in the Stikine Plateau of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located at the head of the Dease River, which flows north then northeast from the lake to join the Liard River. The community of Dease Lake, British Columbia, formerly Dease Lake Post, is located at the south end of the lake, straddling a low pass which leads into the basin from the Tanzilla River, a tributary of the Stikine. The area around the lake was the focus of the Cassiar Gold Rush and numerous ghost towns and former settlement sites are scattered around its shores, including Laketon and Centre City. Dease Lake is the burial site and has a monument to English travelogue writer Warburton Pike.

Henry "Harry" McDame was a Bahamas-born prospector in the California and British Columbia gold rushes.

McDame Place in British Columbia, Canada

McDame, also known originally as McDame Post or McDames Creek Post and also known as Fort McDame is an abandoned settlement in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia,

Fort Stikine was a fur trade post and fortification in what is now the Alaska Panhandle, at the site of the present-day of Wrangell, Alaska, United States. Originally built as the Redoubt San Dionisio or Redoubt Saint Dionysius in 1834, the site was transferred to the British-owned Hudson's Bay Company as part of a lease signed in the region in 1838, and renamed Fort Stikine when turned into a Hudson's Bay Company post in 1839. The post was closed and decommissioned by 1843 but the name remained for the large village of the Stikine people which had grown around it, becoming known as Shakesville in reference to its ruling Chief Shakes by the 1860s. With the Alaska Purchase of 1867, the fortification became occupied by the US Army and was renamed Fort Wrangel, a reference to Baron von Wrangel, who had been Governor of Russian America when the fort was founded. The site today is now part of the city of Wrangell.

The Cottonwood River is a tributary of the Dease River in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Rising in the northern Stikine Ranges just east of Toozaza Peak, and just south of the origins of the Jennings and Little Rancheria River near the border with Yukon, it flows south along the east flank of the Tuya Range to meet the Dease just north of that river's source at Dease Lake, between the north end of that lake and McDame Creek and the former mining centre and community of McDame Post.

The Stikine Gold Rush was a minor but important gold rush in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The rush's discoverer was Alexander "Buck" Choquette, who staked a claim at Choquette Bar in 1861, just downstream from the confluence of the Stikine and Anuk Rivers, at approximately 56°48′N131°46′W. Choquette was the son-in-law of the Tlingit chief Chief Shakes, who presided over the region at the mouth of the river, the site of the former Fort Stikine and today's city of Wrangell, Alaska, and had also explored the Nass and several other rivers.

Laketon, British Columbia Place in British Columbia, Canada

Laketon is a locality and former mining camp on the west shore of Dease Lake in the Cassiar Country of far northern British Columbia, Canada. It is located at the mouth of Dease Creek. Once known for the hanging of two murderers and their bodies buried at the crossroad to serve as a warning to all. Gold was first found on Dease Creek in 1873, with Captain William Moore among the first to stake a claim.

Defot Place in British Columbia, Canada

Defot is a locality and former mining boomtown in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located west of Mount Defot.

Steamboats of the Stikine River

Steamboats operated on the Stikine River in response to gold finds in along that river and in the Cassiar Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada.

Stikine Region Unincorporated area in British Columbia, Canada

The Stikine Region is an unincorporated area in northwestern British Columbia, 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 following a boundary amendment in 2008.

McDame Creek is a creek in Cassiar Land District of British Columbia, Canada. The creek flows southeast into Dease River and is south of Good Hope Lake. The creek was discovered in 1874 by a prospector named Harry McDame. McDame Creek was mined for gold in the 19th century. A camp called Centreville contained cabins and stores and served as a trading centre for miners working on McDame Creek in the 19th century. In 1877 a 72 ounce solid gold nugget valued at $1,300 was found in McDame Creek. The solid gold nugget was found by a prospector named Al Freeman, it was the largest found in the province. This nugget was found roughly where 1st N. Fork Creek flows into McDame Creek.

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