Stikine Ranges

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The Stikine Ranges are a group of mountain ranges and mountainous plateaus in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. They are the northernmost subdivision of the Cassiar Mountains [1] [2] and among the least explored and most undeveloped parts of the province.

Contents

The Sifton Ranges, which are also part of the Cassiar Mountains, lie immediately east of the Stikine Ranges just north of the Finlay River; northwest of there the larger Kechika Ranges lie between the Stikine Ranges and the Rocky Mountain Trench. The Stikine Plateau lies to the west of the Stikine Ranges. [3]

Extent

The ranges run on a NW-SE axis from the Yukon boundary, adjacent to the Nisutlin Plateau at c. 60°00′00″N131°45′00″W / 60.00000°N 131.75000°W / 60.00000; -131.75000 , to the Finlay River at c. 57°40′N126°30′W / 57.667°N 126.500°W / 57.667; -126.500 . [4]

Sub-ranges

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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.

Stickeen Territories Colony of the British Empire

The Stickeen Territories, also colloquially rendered as Stickeen Territory,Stikine Territory, and Stikeen Territory, was a territory of British North America whose brief existence began July 19, 1862, and concluded July of the following year. The region was split from the North-Western Territory in the wake of the Stikine Gold Rush. The initial strike attracted large numbers of miners — mostly American — to the region; by detaching the region from the exclusive trade zone of the Hudson's Bay Company, British authorities were able to impose tariffs and licences on the speculators. The new territory, named after the Stikine River, was under the responsibility of the Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas, who was appointed "Administrator of the Stickeen Territories" and under British law, within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Boundary Ranges Subrange of the Coast Mountains in Alaska, British Columbia, and Yukon

The Boundary Ranges, also known in the singular and as the Alaska Boundary Range, are the largest and most northerly subrange of the Coast Mountains. They begin at the Nass River, near the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle in the Canadian province of British Columbia and run to the Kelsall River, near the Chilkoot Pass, beyond which are the Alsek Ranges of the Saint Elias Mountains, and northwards into the Yukon Territory flanking the west side of the Yukon River drainage as far as Champagne Pass, north of which being the Yukon Ranges. To their east are the Skeena Mountains and Stikine Plateau of the Interior Mountains complex that lies northwest of the Interior Plateau; the immediately adjoining subregion of the Stikine Plateau is the Tahltan Highland. To their northeast is the Tagish Highland, which is a subregion of the Yukon Plateau. Both highlands are considered in some descriptions as included in the Coast Mountains. The Alexander Archipelago lies offshore and is entirely within Alaska.

Omineca Mountains

The Omineca Mountains, also known as "the Ominecas", are a group of remote mountain ranges in the Boreal Cordillera of north-central British Columbia, Canada. They are bounded by the Finlay River on the north, the Rocky Mountain Trench on the east, the Nation Lakes on the south, and the upper reaches of the Omineca River on the west. They form a section of the Continental Divide, that, in this region, separates water drainage between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. The lower course of the Omineca River flows through the heart of the range. To the south of the Ominecas is the Nechako Plateau, to the west the Skeena Mountains and Hazelton Mountains, to the north the Spatsizi Plateau and the Stikine Ranges, while east across the Rocky Mountain Trench are the Muskwa Ranges.

Skeena Mountains

The Skeena Mountains, also known as the Skeenas, are a subrange of the Interior Mountains of northern British Columbia, Canada, essentially flanking the upper basin of the Skeena River. They lie just inland from the southern end of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, and also of the northern end of the Kitimat Ranges. Their southern limit is described by the Bulkley River and the upper northwestern reaches of Babine and Takla Lakes, and on their northeast by the upper reaches of the Omineca River.

Cassiar Mountains

The Cassiar Mountains are the most northerly group of the Northern Interior Mountains in the Canadian province of British Columbia and also extend slightly into the southernmost Yukon Territory. They lie north and west of the Omineca Mountains, west of the northernmost Rockies and the Rocky Mountain Trench, north of the Hazelton Mountains and east of the Boundary Ranges. They form a section of the Continental Divide, that, in this region, separates water drainage between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Yukon-Tanana Uplands province, which in turn are part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division.

Tuya Range

The Tuya Range is a mountain range in the Stikine Ranges of the Cassiar Mountains in the far north of the Canadian province of British Columbia, near its border with the Yukon Territory and to the southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon, which is the nearest major settlement.

Interior Mountains

The Interior Mountains or Northern Interior Mountains are the semi-official names for an expansive collection of mountain ranges that comprises much of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia and a large area of southern Yukon.

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.

Stikine Plateau

The Stikine Plateau is a plateau in northern British Columbia, Canada. It lies between the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the west and southwest and the Cassiar Mountains along its northeast, and between the Skeena Mountains on its south and southeast and the Jennings and Nakina Rivers on the north.

The Kechika Ranges are a subrange of the Cassiar Mountains subdivision of the Interior Mountains in far northern British Columbia, Canada, lying west of the Rocky Mountain Trench between the Rainbow (S) and Deadwood Rivers (N).

Dease Plateau

The Dease Plateau is a sub-plateau of the larger Yukon Plateau, and is located in far northern British Columbia, Canada, northwest from the Deadwood River to and beyond the Yukon-British Columbia boundary. The plateau is named in association with Dease Lake and the Dease River. Very mountainous in some of its vast area, it is in some classification systems it is included as a subarea of the Cassiar Mountains.

Yukon Plateau

The Yukon Plateau is a plateau located in the Yukon Territory, comprising much of the central and southern Yukon Territory and the far northern part of British Columbia, Canada between Tagish Lake (W) and the Cassiar Mountains (E) and north of the Nakina River.

The Swift River is a river that begins in Yukon Territory and flows southwest into British Columbia to its mouth at the east side of Teslin Lake on the Teslin River system. The river drains the uppermost portion of the Cassiar Mountains and in its lower reaches traverses the Nisutlin Plateau, which lies along the east side of Teslin Lake north of the mouth of the Jennings River, which is to the south of the Swift.

The Rancheria River is a tributary of the Liard River in the southern Yukon Territory, Canada, just north of the border with British Columbia. The river's main tributary is the Little Rancheria River, which begins in British Columbia. Both river basins are in the northernmost of extension of the Stikine Ranges of the Cassiar Mountains, which extend from the Finlay River north to the Liard and end just inside the Yukon, with the Rancheria River forming the northern end of the range.

The Jennings River is a river in far northern British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) long. The river was named for William T. Jennings (1846-1906), a civil engineer who, in 1897, assessed various road and railroad routes from the Pacific Ocean to the Yukon.

The Red River is a tributary of the Kechika River in the far north of British Columbia, Canada, flowing east to meet the Kechika from headwaters in the Cassiar Mountains. In its middle reaches it forms the boundary between the Dease Plateau (N) and the Cassiar Mountains (S) and for its final stretch it crosses part of the Liard Plain. It is crossed by an unnamed road about 17.5 kilometres (10.9 mi) upstream from its confluence with the Kechika, and is just to the north of Aeroplane Lake.

The Cassiar Land District is a cadastral survey subdivision of the province of British Columbia, Canada, created with rest of those on Mainland British Columbia via the Lands Act of the Colony of British Columbia in 1860. The British Columbia government's BC Names system, a subdivision of GeoBC, defines a land district as "a territorial division with legally defined boundaries for administrative purposes" All land titles and surveys use the Land District system as the primary point of reference, and entries in BC Names for placenames and geographical objects are so listed.

References

  1. "Stikine Ranges". BC Geographical Names.
  2. S. Holland, Landforms of British Columbia, Province of British Columbia (1976). p. 61
  3. S. Holland, Landforms of British Columbia, Province of British Columbia (1976). p. 61
  4. S. Holland, Landforms of British Columbia, Map appendix, Province of British Columbia (1976)

Coordinates: 57°00′N127°20′W / 57.000°N 127.333°W / 57.000; -127.333