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Stikine Territory (usually spelled Stickeen Territory or Stikeen Territory in the 19th century, and also in plural form as Stickeen Territories, which was the actual legal name) was a territory that existed in British North America from July 19, 1862 until July of the next year comprising British-claimed regions that had been part of trading leases attached to the Hudson's Bay Company. A gold rush in the Stikine basin had attracted large numbers of miners, mostly American, to the region, leading the British authorities in the adjacent colonies to the south to deem it advisable to detach the region from the Hudson's Bay Company's lands and declare a colony. The new territory, named after the Stikine River, was under the responsibility of the Governor of British Columbia, James Douglas, who was appointed "Administrator of the Stickeen Territories" and under British law, within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The boundaries of the territory were defined as the boundary with Russian America to the west, the boundary of the Colony of British Columbia to the south and sout-east, the 125th line of longitude on the east, and the 62nd parallel of latitude to the north.[1]
Only a year later it was decided that the western regions should be amalgamated. Stikine and the Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands were added to the Colony of British Columbia. The northernmost section, above the 60th parallel, was merged back into the North-Western Territory and was formed into the Yukon Territory in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush.
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