Skeena River
Skeena River is the second largest river in
British Columbia, after the
Fraser River.
1 The Skeena originates in northwestern
British Columbia and flows 570 km to the Pacific Ocean at Chatham Sound. Skeena is an adapation of
the Tsimshian phrase kâshian, which means
water of the clouds.
2In 1793, Joseph Whidbey explored the mouth of the Skeena.
3 Whidbey reported to
Captain George Vancouver that the river was insignificant because its entrance was rocky and muddy.
4 Walbran argues that
the Skeena was overlooked [by early explorers] much in the way as the Fraser, from ignorance as to what the entrance of a large river would be like when deploying
the sea.
5This despatch shows that, in 1859, a group of explorers navigated the Skeena River by canoe, going
a distance of 177 km from the sea.
Douglas writes that the leader of the expedition,
Mr Downie,
made several important discoveries in course of his adventurous journey. He found
gold in small quantities on the Skeena River; he also saw very valuable and extensive
beds of coal.
In the same letter,
Douglas speculates correctly that
The valley of the Skeena is thus shewn to be an available avenue into the interior
of British Columbia, and will, I have no doubt, soon become a most important outlet for the upper Districts
of Fraser River; which, from the course of the River and the direction of the Coast, are brought in close proximity with the sea.
- 1. Site Specific Water Quality Guidelines for Skeena River, Tri-Star: Environmental Consulting.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 548.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 459.