Stewart, British Columbia
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Stewart is a small town at the head of the Portland Canal in western British Columbia, Canada. In 2000, its population was about 700.
[edit] History
The Nisga'a, who lived around the Nass River, called the head of Portland Canal "Skam-A-Kounst," meaning safe place, probably because it served them as a retreat from the harassment of the Haidas on the coast. They travelled in the area seasonally to pick berries and hunt birds.
The area around the Portland Canal was explored in 1896 by Captain D.D. Gaillard of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (after whom the Gillard Cut in the Portland Canal was later named). Two years after Gillard'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 center for Canadian mining activity. Mining ceased in 1956, with the exception of Granduc Copper Mine, which operated until 1984.
Stewart had a population of about 10,000 prior to World War I, which then declined to about 700 in 2000. As of 2005, its population had reduced to less than 500.
Stewart is accessible by highway from the British Columbia highway system, via Highway 37A.
[edit] Climate
Stewart has a coastal rainforest climate, with about 100 cm (40 inches) per year of precipitation, much of it as snow. Stewart is Canada's most northerly ice-free port.
