Hazelton, BC. The section from Quesnel to Hazelton was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Telegraph service was eventually extended to Telegraph Creek and onward to Dawson City, Yukon in 1899, closely following the route laid out three decades before. In 1871, the US and a newly independent Canada signed a treaty guaranteeing free navigation on the Stikine through American territory. The treaty still applies to Canada's use of the river, even though the river is no longer used for commercial shipping. In 1874, gold was discovered near Dease Lake. The Cassiar Gold Rush, lasting until 1880, saw hundreds of miners traveling deep into Tahltan lands and a resurgence in riverboat traffic. Although many Tahltans found employment as packers or hunters during the gold rush period, there were also frequent conflicts due to miners encroaching on their land, while disease continued to reduce Tahltan numbers. In order to protect their culture, several Tahltan clans built a communal village, Tahltan, at the confluence of the Stikine and Tahltan rivers. This village was inhabited until 1920, when its remaining residents moved to Telegraph Creek. In the late 1890s the Klondike Gold Rush brought even more people to the area. Due to being considered international waters, the Stikine was marketed as the "All-Canadian" route to the Yukon, allowing travelers to avoid customs duties at the Alaska border. In 1897–98 more than three thousand miners passed through the Stikine, many in such a hurry that they embarked in winter and traveled by sled up the frozen river. They camped at Telegraph Creek or Glenora (the head of low water navigation) before continuing overland north to the Yukon. In its promotion of the route, the Canadian government promised a "first-class wagon road" to be built from Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake, where miners could board boats for the journey down the Yukon River. However, the construction was a fiasco due to delays and engineering challenges, and miners found difficult, muddy conditions waiting for them. By 1900 the gold rush was over, and the boomtowns of the Stikine quickly faded. Glenora was abandoned while Telegraph Creek remained as a small village. 20th century The Stikine remained the primary route to interior northern BC well into the twentieth century. After the end of the Klondike gold rush, riverboats continued to operate on the Stikine, carrying oil, machinery and food upriver and returning with furs and ore, in addition