Editing Hyder, Alaska (section)

== History ==
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The [[Nisga'a]], who lived around the [[Nass River]], called the head of Portland Canal "Skam-A-Kounst," meaning ''safe place'', probably because it served them as a retreat from the harassment of the [[Haida people|Haidas]] on the coast.<ref name=DCCED/> They traveled in the area seasonally to pick berries.

The area around the Portland Canal was explored in 1896 by Captain [[David du Bose Gaillard|D.D. Gaillard]] of the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]].<ref name=DCCED>{{cite web|url=https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/dcra/DCRAExternal/community/Details/2dce25e6-732b-4475-82fd-1a31f090239f|title=Hyder|publisher=State of Alaska - Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development|access-date=February 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231232746/https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/dcra/DCRAExternal/community/Details/2dce25e6-732b-4475-82fd-1a31f090239f|archive-date=December 31, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1898, gold and silver lodes were discovered in the region, mainly on the Canadian side, in the upper [[Salmon River (Portland Canal)|Salmon River]] basin. The Stewart brothers, for whom the British Columbia [[Stewart, British Columbia|town]] was named, arrived in 1902.

Hyder was established in 1907 as "Portland City", after the canal.<ref name = GSPP1967 /> In 1914, when the [[United States Postal Service|US Post Office Department]] told residents that there were many U.S. communities named [[Portland (disambiguation)#United States|Portland]], it was renamed ''Hyder'', after Frederick Hyder, a Canadian mining engineer who envisioned a bright future for the area. Hyder was the only practical point of access to the silver mines in Canada;  the community became the port, supply point, and post office for miners by 1917. Hyder's boom years were the 1920s, when the Riverside Mine on the U.S. side extracted gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and tungsten. The mine operated from 1924 to 1950.

In 1928, the Hyder business district was consumed by fire.<ref name=DCCED/> By 1956 all significant mining had ceased, except for the [[Granduc Mine]] on the Canadian side, which operated until 1984 and 2010 to present.<ref>{{cite web |author=Ellsworth Dickson |url=http://www.castleresources.com/pdf/Resource-World-10-8-Castle.pdf |title=Castle Resources plans to re-open Granduc Copper Mine |publisher=Resource World Magazine |date=August 2012 |access-date=February 23, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302073845/http://www.castleresources.com/pdf/Resource-World-10-8-Castle.pdf |archive-date=March 2, 2016  }}</ref> Westmin Resources Ltd operated a gold and silver mine on the Canadian side in Premier, British Columbia, but is not currently active.<ref>{{cite web |author=BC Geological Survey (BCGS) |url=http://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=104B++054 |title=MINFILE Mineral Inventory No 104B 054 |publisher=British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines and Responsible for Core Review |access-date=February 23, 2016}}</ref>