Skeena River
| Skeena River | |
 The Bulkley River (left) flowing into the Skeena River (right) near Hazelton
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| Country | Canada |
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| Province | British Columbia |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Sustut River, Babine River, Bulkley River, Zymoetz River |
| - right | Kitwanga River, Kitsumkalum River |
| City | Terrace |
| Source | Spatsizi Plateau |
| - coordinates | 57°9′6″N 128°41′29″W / 57.15167°N 128.69139°W |
| Mouth | Pacific Ocean |
| - location | Chatham Sound |
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| - coordinates | 54°8′15″N 130°5′40″W / 54.13750°N 130.09444°WCoordinates: 54°8′15″N 130°5′40″W / 54.13750°N 130.09444°W |
| Length | 570 km (354 mi) |
| Basin | 54,400 km2 (21,000 sq mi) |
| Discharge | for mouth |
| - average | 1,760 m3/s (62,154 cu ft/s) |
 Skeena River watershed with tributaries
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The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River," respectively. The river and its basin sustain a wide variety of fish, wildlife, and vegetation; and communities native to the area depend on the health of the river. The Tsimshian migrated to the Lower Skeena River, and the Gitxsan occupy territory of the Upper Skeena.
During the Omineca Gold Rush, steamboat services ran from the sea to Hazelton, which was the jumping-off point for the trails to the goldfields. The Hudson's Bay Company established a major trading post on the Skeena at what became called Port Simpson, British Columbia (Lax Kw'alaams), where nine tribes of the Tsimshian nation settled about 1834. Other tribes live elsewhere in BC, and descendants of one group in Metlatkala, Alaska.
The Skeena originates south of the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park in north western British Columbia, forming a divide with the Klappan River, a tributary of the Stikine River. It flows for 570 km (350 mi) before it empties into Chatham Sound, Telegraph Passage and Ogden Channel, east of the Dixon Entrance, all part of the Pacific Ocean. The Skeena drains 54,400 km2 (21,000 sq mi) of land with a mean annual discharge of 1,760 cubic metres per second (62,000 cu ft/s).
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Wikipedia