Stewart is a Canadian border community at the mouth of the Bear River and the head of Portland Canal, about 99 miles (159 km) east‑southeast of Wrangell, Alaska and 114 miles (184 km) north of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. A 2‑mile (3.2 km) road links Stewart to Hyder, Alaska. The head of Portland Canal was once the territory of the Tsetsaut, an Athapaskan people decimated by prolonged conflict with the Haida and Tlingit and by diseases brought by Europeans. They were eventually absorbed by the Nass River Nisga’a in the mid‑1800s. The Nisga’a called them Jits’aawit or, more generally, Sgamagunt (strong house or safe house), a term that encompassed the Bear River valley as their sole refuge from coastal harassment. Europeans first explored the canal in 1793. Captain George Vancouver later named it in honor of William Cavendish-Bentinck, the third Duke of Portland and Home Secretary from 1794 to 1801. In 1896, Captain David D. Gaillard of the US Army Corps of Engineers revisited the waterway during an international boundary dispute, erecting a stone storage house at Hyder to assert US claims. Stewart’s founding is credited to prospectors duped by a Seattle promoter named Burgess, who had advertised a map of placer diggings in the Nass River Valley. In spring 1898, 84 men sailed aboard the chartered SS Discovery, landing at the Bear River delta with horses and supplies. When it was time to stake claims, Burgess had vanished. Some prospectors returned south, but others—including David J. Rainey and James W. Stewart—remained. Rainey built the community’s first log cabin and preempted land in 1900, later commemorated by a creek and mountain bearing his name. In 1902, James Stewart was joined by his brothers John and Robert; in 1905 they founded the town, with Robert as postmaster. The brothers subsequently formed a land company, sold lots, and launched a mining and development firm.

In 1917, the discovery of rich silver veins in the upper Salmon River basin sparked a gold and silver mining boom in Stewart and nearby Hyder. Hyder became the access and supply point for Alaskan mines, while Stewart served as the port for Canadian operations at Premier—located about 14 miles (23 km) up the Salmon River valley by road through Alaska into British Columbia. By 1918, Premier had emerged as one of British Columbia’s—and possibly Canada’s—richest mineral deposits. The mining plant featured a 500‑ton‑per‑day concentrator powered by its own facility: a 1,620‑horsepower diesel engine and a 1,100‑horsepower hydroelectric system. A 12‑mile (19 km) aerial tramway linked the mine to tidewater in Stewart. The Premier Mine, operated by various owners, produced gold steadily from 1918 until 1953 and intermittently for several years thereafter. Highly profitable, it distributed about $22 million in dividends before sitting idle from 1967 to 1988, aside from minor exploration in the early 1980s. Westmin Mines resumed development in 1988, running an open‑pit operation from 1989 to 1992 and underground mining from 1993 to 1996. Other notable mines included Jumbo, BC Silver, Red Cliff and Porter‑Idaho. On the southeast slope of Mount Rainey, the Porter Idaho Mines’ workings spanned elevations of about 4,200 to 6,000 feet (1,280-1,830 m). Organized in 1925 to assume claims staked by Clay Porter, the company developed four underground mineralized zones and shipped high‑value ore from oxidized surface material. In 1926, the Premier Gold Mining Company acquired a 52 percent stake and assumed management two years later. A 5‑mile (8 km) aerial tramline hauled ore from the mine at 5,000 feet (1,524 m) to Stewart, beginning at sea level at the mouth of the Marmot River on Portland Canal. Rising costs and declining silver prices forced closure in 1931. Big Four Silver Mines assumed control in 1946, shipping 28 tons of high‑grade ore in 1950, with Cassiar Consolidated Mines taking over in 1952. Collectively, these mining ventures played a pivotal role in shaping the region’s economic landscape. See a short video on the Premier and Porter Idaho mine operations here.

The Bear River watershed in the Boundary Range of the Coast Mountains begins at Strohn Lake, a proglacial lake at the terminus of the Bear River Glacier. Strohn Lake lies about 19 miles (31 km) upstream of Stewart and 14 miles (23 km) west of Meziadin Junction on the Cassiar Highway. The glacier flows 3 miles (5 km) from the Cambria Icefield at 7,005 feet (2,135 m), descending into Bear River Pass before ending in Strohn Lake, which measures 1.1 miles (1.8 km) by 984 feet (300 m). Over the past century, changes in ice and lake extents—and human intervention—have shifted the hydrologic divide. Historically, the glacier formed an ice dam across the valley floor; as late as 1955, the river flowed both west toward the Portland Canal and east toward Meziadin Lake. The Cambria Icefield spans 176,680 acres (71,500 ha), with outlet glaciers spilling into nearby valleys. Principal tributaries include Bitter Creek from the icefield and American Creek from the north, along with numerous glacier-fed mountain streams. These features reflect the interplay of natural glacial processes and human activity. Glacial sediment has produced a braided network of channels, especially in the lower reaches where flow velocity decreases. Tides in the Portland Canal—a mean elevation of 17 feet (5 m) with a 27‑foot (8 m) range—affect flow and water levels in the lower river. In the early 20th century the river migrated across the delta; in the 1950s, dikes were built along the channel for flood control. Continued deposition necessitated periodic extensions and raised dikes to mitigate flood risks and protect commercial, residential, and highway areas. The Glacier Highway—a 40‑mile (64 km) spur built in 1984—connects the Cassiar Highway at Meziadin Junction to Stewart and Hyder. From Hyder it becomes Salmon River Road, an unsigned highway that runs north through Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, crosses back into Canada at the Premier Mine, and ends at the Granduc Mine. Read more here and here. Explore more of Stewart and Portland Canal here: