File:Portland Canal, from the Salmon River, at present location of Hyder, Alaska, circa 1894 (AL+CA 324).jpg

Caption on image: Looking across Portland Canal from Salmon River.

On verso of image: This picture was taken by the U.S. attache of the Boundary survey. Dan.

Hyder is nestled at the head of Portland Canal, a 70 mile-long fjord which forms a portion of the U.S./Canadian border. Hyder is just 2 miles from Stewart, British Columbia, and 75 air miles from Ketchikan. It is the only community in southern Alaska accessible by road. The area encompasses 15 sq. miles of land and 1 sq. miles of water. Nass River Indians called the head of Portland Canal "Skam-A-Kounst," meaning "safe place," probably referring to the site as a retreat from the harassment of the coastal Haidas. The Nass used this area as a seasonal berry-picking and bird-hunting site. In 1896, Capt. D.D. Gaillard of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers explored Portland Canal. Gold and silver lodes were discovered in this area in the late 1898, mainly on the Canadian side in the upper Salmon River basin. The Stewart brothers arrived in 1902. Hyder was originally called Portland City, and the name was changed in 1914 after Frederick Hyder, a Canadian mining engineer who predicted a bright future for the area. Hyder was the only practical point of access to the silver mining properties in Canada, and the community became the ocean port, supply point, and post office for miners by 1917. Hyder's boom years occurred between 1920 and 1930, when the Riverside Mine on U.S. territory extracted gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and tungsten. The mine operated from 1924 until 1950. In 1948, the townsite, built on pilings, was destroyed by fire. By 1956, all major mining had closed except for the Granduc Copper Mine in Canada, which operated until 1984. Westmin Resources Ltd. currently operates a gold and silver mine. [Source: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/communities/alaska/bl-Hyder.htm

• Subjects (LCSH): Hyder (Alaska)--Buildings, structures, etc.