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Haines The area around present-day Haines was called "'Dtehshuh"
or "end of the trail" by the Chilkat group of Tlingit.
It received this name because they could portage (carry) their canoes
from the trail they used to trade with the interior, which began
at the outlet of the Chilkat River, to Dtehshuh and save 32 km (20
miles) of rowing around the Chilkat Peninsula.
The first European, George Dickinson, an agent for the North West
Trading Company, settled at Dtehshuh in 1880.
In 1881, the Chilkat asked Sheldon Jackson to send missionaries
to the area. S. Young Hall, a Presbyterian minister, was sent. He
built the Willard mission and school at Dtehshuh, on land given
the church by the Chilkat. The mission was renamed Haines in 1884
in honor of Mrs. F. E. Haines, the chairwoman of the committee that
raised funds for its construction.
The boundary between Canada and the U.S. was then only vaguely defined
(see Alaska boundary dispute). There were overlapping land claims
from the United States' purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 and
British claims along the coast. Canada had requested a survey after
British Columbia united with it in 1871, but the idea was rejected
by the United States as being too costly given the area's remoteness,
sparse settlement, and limited economic or strategic interest.
The Klondike Gold Rush of 1898–1899 changed the region greatly.
The population of the general area increased enormously and reached
30,000, composed largely of Americans. Haines grew as a supply center,
since the Dalton Trail from Chilkat Inlet offered a route to the
Yukon for prospectors. Gold was also discovered 36 miles from Haines
in 1899 at the Porcupine District. During this time the name Haines
came into use for the area around the mission and not for just the
mission itself.
The economy continued to grow and diversify. Four canneries were
constructed around the mission by 1900. However, the completion
of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway in neighboring Skagway
that same year led to the Dalton Trail's eventual abandonment and
Haines' economic decline.
Fort William H. Seward, a United States Army installation, was constructed
south of Haines in 1904, on property donated by the mission from
its holdings. In 1922, the fort was renamed Chilkoot Barracks. It
was the only United States Army post in Alaska before World War
II. During World War II, it was used as a supply point for some
U. S. Army activities in Alaska. The fort was deactivated in 1946
and sold as surplus property
Haines is located at 59°14'02?N 135°26'49?W59.233800°N
135.447009°W
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