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Stewart and Hyder are on a spur of the Cassiar Highway at the head of the Portland Canal, a narrow saltwater fjord approximately 90 miles/145 kilometres long. The fjord forms a natural boundary between Alaska and Canada. Stewart has a deep harbour and boasts of being "Canada's Most Northerly Ice Free Port".
Prior to the coming of the white man, Nass River Indians knew the head of the Portland Canal as Skam-A-Kounst, meaning safe place, probably refering to the place as a retreat from the harassment of the coastal Hiadas. The Nass came here annually to hunt birds and pick berries. Little evidence of their presence remains today.
In 1896, Captain D. D. Gillard (after whom the Gillard Cut in the Portland Canal was later named) explored the Portland Canal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Two years after Gillards visit, the first prospectors and settlers arrived. Amoung them was D. J. Raine, for whom a creek and a mountain in the area are named. The Stewart brothers arrived in 1902, and in 1905, Robert M. Stewart, the first postmaster, named the town Stewart. Hyder was first called Portland City. It was renamed Hyder after Canadian mining engineer Frederick B. Hyder when the U.S. postal Authority told residnets there were already too many cities named Portland.
Gold and silver mining dominated the early economy. Hyder boomed with the discovery of rich silver veins in the upper Salmon River basin in 1917-1918. Hundreds of pilings, which supported structures during this boom period, are visable in the tidal flats at Hyder.
Hyder became an access and supply point for the mines, while Stewart served as the centre for Canadian mining activity. Mining ceased in 1956, with the exception of Granduc copper mine, which operated until 1984.
Despite the many changes in population from a high of 10,00 prior to the first world war, to a low of under 1,000 today, Stewart has always and will continue to presevere.
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