The Portland Canal is an arm of Portland Inlet

Portland Inlet

Portland Inlet is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, approximately 55 kilometers north of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. It joins the Chatham Sound opposite the Dixon Entrance. It is 40 kilometers long and as much as 13 kilometers wide...

, one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast

British Columbia Coast

The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....

. It is approximately 114 kilometres (70.8 mi) long. The Portland Canal forms part of the border between southeastern Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 and British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. The name of the entire inlet in the Nisga'a language

Nisga'a language

Nisga’a is a Tsimshianic language of the Nisga'a people of northwestern British Columbia. Nisga'a people, however, do not like the term Tshimshianic as they feel that it gives precedence to Coast Tsimshian. Nisga’a is very closely related to Gitksan...

 is K'alii Xk'alaan, with /xk/alaan/ meaning "at the back of (someplace)". The upper end of the inlet was home to the Tsetsaut ("Jits'aawit" in Nisga'a), who after being decimated by war and disease were taken under the protection of the Laxsgiik

Laxsgiik

The Laxsgiik is the name for the Eagle "clan" in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska...

 (Eagle) chief of the Nisga'a, who holds the inlet's title in native law.

Despite its naming as a canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

, the inlet is a fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

, a completely natural and not man-made geographic feature and extends 114.6 kilometres (71.2 mi) northward from the Portland Inlet at Pearse Island

Pearse Island

Pearse Island is an island in western British Columbia, Canada, in the Portland Inlet, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. The island was first charted in 1793 by George Vancouver during his 1791-95 expedition...

, British Columbia, to Stewart, British Columbia

Stewart, British Columbia

Stewart is a small town, incorporated as a district municipality at the head of the Portland Canal in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. In 2006, its population was about 496.-History:...

 and Hyder, Alaska

Hyder, Alaska

Hyder is a census-designated place in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 97. Hyder has achieved fame as a point in Alaska accessible to automobile and motorbike travelers in Canada who want to say that they have been to Alaska...

. At its head is the abandoned smelter town of Anyox

Anyox, British Columbia

Anyox was a small company-owned mining town in British Columbia, Canada. Today it is largely destroyed and abandoned. It is located about southwest of Stewart, British Columbia on the shores of Observatory Inlet...

. Observatory Inlet

Observatory Inlet

Observatory Inlet is an inlet on the North Coast of British Columbia. It is a northward extension of Portland Inlet, other sidewaters of which include the Portland Canal. The entrance of Observatory Inlet, from Portland Inlet, lies between Ramsden Point and Nass Point. Ramsden Point also marks, to...

 joins the Portland Canal at Ramsden Point, where both merge with Portland Inlet. Pearse Canal

Pearse Canal

Pearse Canal is a channel or strait forming part of the Canada-United States border at the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle and adjacent to the mouth of Portland Inlet. It is on the northwest side of Wales and Pearse Islands, which are in British Columbia, Canada, and forms part of the...

 joins Portland Canal at the north end of Pearse Island.

Portland Canal was given its name by George Vancouver

George Vancouver

Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...

 in 1793, in honour of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, KG, PC was a British Whig and Tory statesman, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Prime Minister. He was known before 1762 by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield. He held a title of every degree of British nobility—Duke,...

. The use of the word canal to name inlets on the British Columbia Coast

British Columbia Coast

The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....

 and the Alaska Panhandle

Alaska Panhandle

Southeast Alaska, sometimes referred to as the Alaska Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, which lies west of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United...

 is a legacy of the Spanish exploration of the area in the 18th century. For example, Haro Strait

Haro Strait

Haro Strait, often referred to as the Haro Straits because it is really a series of straits, is one of the main channels connecting the Strait of Georgia to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada from the San Juan Islands of...

 between Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

 and the San Juan Islands

San Juan Islands

The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the northwest corner of the contiguous United States between the US mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of the U.S...

 was originally Canal de Haro. The English cognate to the Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 canal is "channel", which is found throughout the coast, cf. Dean Channel

Dean Channel

Dean Channel is the upper end of one of the longest inlets of the British Columbia Coast, from its head at the mouth of the Kimsquit River. The Dean River, one of the main rivers of the Coast Mountains, enters Dean Channel about below the head of the inlet, at the community of...

. George Vancouver used both terms in his naming of inlets, Hood Canal

Hood Canal

Hood Canal is a fjord forming the western lobe, and one of the four main basins, of Puget Sound in the state of Washington. Hood Canal is not a canal in the sense of being a man-made waterway—it is a natural waterway.-Geography:...

 for example.

The placement of the international boundary in the Portland Canal was a major issue during the negotiations over the Alaska Boundary Dispute

Alaska Boundary Dispute

The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and Canada . It was resolved by arbitration in 1903. The dispute had been going on between the Russian and British Empires since 1821, and was inherited by the United States as a consequence of the Alaska Purchase in...

, which heated up as a result of the Klondike Gold Rush

Klondike Gold Rush

The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...

 and ended by arbitration in 1903. Together with Pearse Canal

Pearse Canal

Pearse Canal is a channel or strait forming part of the Canada-United States border at the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle and adjacent to the mouth of Portland Inlet. It is on the northwest side of Wales and Pearse Islands, which are in British Columbia, Canada, and forms part of the...

 and Tongass Passage

Tongass Passage

Tongass Passage is a strait on the Canada-United States border between Alaska and British Columbia, located on the southwest side of Wales Island. Wales Island, and Pearse Island, to its northeast, were claimed by the United States prior to the settlement of the Alaska boundary dispute in 1903. ...

, the Portland Canal is defined by the Alaska Boundary Settlement (the Hay-Herbert Treaty

Hay-Herbert Treaty

The Alaska boundary treaty, also known as the Hay–Herbert treaty, signed in 1903, is a treaty between Great Britain and United States that resolved a dispute on the location of the border between Alaska and Canada....

) as part of Portland Channel, a term used as forming the marine boundary in the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825 but which was undefined at the time.