Stewart, British Columbia
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Stewart is a district municipality at the head of the Portland Canal in northwestern British Columbia, Canada,<ref name="Stewart">Template:BCGNIS</ref> near the Alaskan panhandle. In 2021, it had a population of 517.
History
The Nisga'a, who lived around the Nass River, called the head of Portland Canal Template:Lang, meaning "safe house" or "strong house", probably because it served them as a retreat from the harassment of the Haida and Tlingit from the outer coast.<ref name="Stewart"/><ref name="Sgamagunt">Template:BCGNIS</ref> They travelled in the area seasonally to pick berries and hunt birds. It and the rest of the Portland Canal had previously been the domain of the Tsetsaut people, also called the Skam-a-Kounst Indians, or Template:Lang in Nisga'a, an Athapaskan people who became decimated by war and disease and were driven out of the Stewart area by either Haida or Nisga'a in 1856–57.
The Portland Canal was first explored and named in July 1793 by Captain George Vancouver in honour of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738–1808), Home Secretary from 1794 to 1801. Vancouver met two friendly native people at the current site of Stewart.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The area around the Portland Canal was again explored in 1896 by Captain D.D. Gaillard of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (after whom the Gaillard Cut in the Panama Canal was later named). Two years after Gaillard's visit, the first prospectors and settlers arrived. Among them was D. J. Raine, for whom a creek and a mountain in the area are named. The Stewart brothers arrived in 1902. In 1905, Robert M. Stewart, the first postmaster, named the town Stewart.
Gold and silver mining dominated the early economy. Nearby Hyder, Alaska, boomed with the discovery of rich silver veins in the upper Salmon River basin in 1917 and 1918. Hyder became an access and supply point for the mines, while Stewart served as the port for Canadian mining activity, which was centred on the town of Premier, which was accessed by a Template:Convert road from Hyder. Other mines in the area were the Jumbo, BC Silver, Red Cliff, and Porter-Idaho. More large camps were south of Stewart at Anyox and Maple Bay.
Disney's Eight Below, starring Paul Walker and Jason Biggs, was partially filmed here. The exterior shots from John Carpenter's science fiction classic The Thing were filmed within Salmon Glacier.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Stewart had a population of 517 living in 256 of its 337 total private dwellings, a change of Template:Percentage from its 2016 population of 401. With a land area of Template:Cvt, it had a population density of Template:Pop density in 2021.<ref name=2021census>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Transportation
Stewart is accessible by highway from the British Columbia highway system, via Highway 37A, by boat through the Portland Canal, or by air through Stewart Airport.
Location
West of Stewart is Hyder, Alaska, which is only Template:Convert from the town. Northwest of Stewart, and accessible only by way of Hyder, is Premier, British Columbia, notable for being in Canada, but accessible only through a portion of the United States that is accessible only from Canada.
East of the town is Meziadin Junction, which is Template:Convert from the town. Also east is Kitwanga, British Columbia, which is located Template:Convert from the town, and Dease Lake, British Columbia, which is located Template:Convert north of Stewart. It is the northernmost point on Canada's Pacific coast.
Climate
Stewart has a humid continental climate (Dfb), with about Template:Convert per year of precipitation, much of it as snow, and an average yearly temperature of Template:Convert, according to Environment Canada.<ref name= "climate">Environment Canada—Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010, accessed 16 July 2014</ref> Stewart is Canada's most northerly ice-free port.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Due to its proximity to the ocean, the climate retains strong maritime influences, with winters being far milder than locations farther inland. With an average of 985 hours of annual sunshine, Stewart is one of the cloudiest places in the world.
See also
- Alaska boundary dispute
- Granduc Mine
- Hyder, Alaska
- List of francophone communities in British Columbia
References
External links
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