Stikine Territory
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.
This territory existed for a short time as a discrete political region, mostly due
to gold discoveries on the
Stikine River in 1861. Eventually, the British government gave
Douglas legal authority in the region, 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
Helps, Arthur to Fortescue, 1st Baron Carlingford Chichester 12 June 1863, CO 60:17,
no. 5704, 143]:
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.