The Tatshenshini River valley is renowned for its natural beauty, a beauty so great that Edward Glave, the first recorded person to descend the river, declared that the region provided "such an incessant display of scenic wild grandeur that it became tiresome." Glave, a writer for Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, decided to fill in some of the blank areas on British Columbian and Alaskan maps. He navigated the river in 1890, along with Jack Dalton and several companions.

By the 1970s, the region's wild scenery and rushing waters attracted rafters and kayakers to try their skill on the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers. In August 1976 the first river rafters traveled the river. Walt Henderson's group set out first from Dalton Post, but near the end of the trip Bobby Blackadar's group overtook them and Blackadar's crew became the first to raft the Tatshenshini.