Talk:Stikine, British Columbia

Note on name/customs post

The BC gazetteer, quoted from BCGNIS in inline comments, only lists this from 1930 onwards but the actual date of the establishment of the customs post is not given, nor information about staffing or reason; since the time of the Klondike Gold Rush there have been customs patrols somewhere along this route, maybe at this lcoation, I'm not sure; if it's 1930 the reason might be to prevent the in-migration of American men who had gone to Alaska to look for work; but I think the post was there quite a while before that, at least ot the Klondike if not also back to the Stikine Gold Rush and the Alaska Purchase, after which the adjoining areas of what had been seen (by BC) to be part of BC were overrun by Americans, and as with the Klondike similar fears existed here that the tide of American entrepreneurs and settlers (and guns) would overwhelm British authority; the US did in fact claim another ten miles or more inland in this area - twenty? what's ten leagues anyway?...never did know exactly what a league is, or a marine league - 10 miles? - and I think it was on teh Porcupine River (British Columbia) within that zone that conflicts between British and Canadian vs American miners took place during hte lead-up to the settlement of the Alaska Boundary Dispute; it may have been Porcupine Creek, a left/east fork of the Skagway River, I'll have to dig out my newspaper source on that; it was fairly brief and from a Canadian paper; there might be something in the New York Times of the same date/week....anyway this may be only one of a series of border posts within the vicinity, I'll look around for info; at the time of the Stikine Gold Rush Fort Stikine was used as a customs check-point; because there certainly was one. It's interesting that it's not mentioned in the Gazetteer until 1930, but then again before that tehre were really only the directories; this was not a community, but an outpost, more of a "ghost house" than a ghost town (which is why no ghost town cat or template), with maybe 3 people max, more like two or one, in residence; thought you'd extpect a strongbox/blockhouse and an armoury and fortification, this was probably more of a cabin with a good view and beaching on the river....definitely a steamboat landing. Is there a customs posts or border crossings category? Somewhere out there will be the name of the officials who staffed the post, and what its raison de'tre was; ironically that may be on an Alaskan/Wrangell/Tlingit history site rather than a BC one, but y'never know....maybe Living Landscapes has something on that era in the Stikine....Skookum1 (talk) 03:52, 13 September 2008 (UTC)