Stikine River

River in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska; length 539 km/335 mi. The Stikine has long been a focus of fishing and trade for the region's indigenous people; its upper reaches are a Tahltan homeland, while its lower part is a main fishing area of the Tlingit.

The Stikine River rises in the mountain range of the same name, and flows first north and west, and then south through the Coast Range Mountains, reaching the Pacific Ocean just north of Wrangell, Alaska. The river was used as a trade route by the Hudson's Bay Company from the 1840s onwards, and there was a gold rush on Telegraph Creek, a tributary, in 1861. In the 1890s steamboats on the Stikine carried fortune seekers some distance inland towards the goldfields of the Klondike. Nowadays, salmon fishing and wilderness recreation are important sources of income along the river.