Photographs of the Stikine/Teslin Trail Gold Rush Route, approximately 1897

The Stikine region is the traditional home of the Tahltan people, who have lived there for generations. The Stikine River was once a major Tlingit trade route to the Athabascan speaking, Tahltan native people of the interior of British Columbia. The modern history of the Telegraph Creek area dates back to the discovery of gold on the Stikine River in the 1860s and near Dease Lake in the 1870s. During this time the Hudson Bay Company established a trading post first down river at Glenora then later at Telegraph Creek in 1900. The village was also the trail head for the Stikine and Teslin trails to the Klondike goldfields in the late 1890s.

Once gold was discovered the Stikine/Teslin trail became an alternate passageway to the gold fields in Dawson. The route started in Wrangell, Alaska south of the two major routes going up from Skagway and Dyea. The gold seekers traveled up the river from Wrangell, AK, by steam-boat or dogsled to Glenora, or further upstream to Telegraph Creek which is mainly a Tahltan settlement. From there they traveled over land, north to Teslin Lake, to take a boat to Dawson.

The route became popular because the major routes such as the Chilkoot and White Pass Trails required the payment of duty on Canadian outfits because they passed through American lands. Passage up the Stikine River was exempt from American duty, which made the Teslin Trail the choice of Canadian merchants. The trail was also promoted as very easy to travel. A Canadian newspaper stated that the trail was “passing through exceptionally easy country.” Unfortunately this was not true as the stampeders found out as they battled mosquitoes, falling through the ice, loads that had to be hauled up hills using block and tackle, trails that were too narrow for wagons and other dangers and hardships.