Stikine Territory
Map
The Stikine Territory today would cover present-day northwest British Columbia in the south, the Yukon to the north, and its top-most right portion would push into the Northwest Territories. Its official boundaries were as follows: the Alaska border to the west, the 62nd parallel to the north, the 125th meridian to the east, and the border of the colony of British Columbia to the south.1
This territory existed for a short time as a discrete political region, mostly due to gold discoveries on the Stikine River in 1861.2 Eventually, the British government gave Douglas legal authority in the region,3 and the despatches collection tracks the fate of this short-lived entity up to the point, in 1863, when Newcastle includes the following passage in a memorial [in this document]:
I think the present opportunity should be taken to annex Stickeen to the Colony of British Columbia. I see no other way of adequately providing for its Government without making it a separate [Government] at the expense of the Mother Country, which must be avoided.
See the Stikine River entry for more information.
  • 1. J. W. Shelest, Stikine Territory, The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. Ibid.
Mentions of this place in the documents
The Colonial Despatches Team. Stikine Territory. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. The Colonial Despatches Team. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/stikine_territory.html.

Last modified: 2020-03-30 13:22:16 -0700 (Mon, 30 Mar 2020) (SVN revision: 4193)