The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia , which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia . The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly River , and on Keithley Creek and Antler Creek in 1860. The actual rush did not begin until 1861, when these discoveries were widely publicized. By 1865, following the strikes along Williams Creek , the rush was in full swing.
27-585: Towns grew up, the most famous of these being Barkerville , now preserved as a heritage site and tourist attraction. Other important towns of the Cariboo gold rush era were Keithley Creek , Quesnel Forks or simply "the Forks", Antler, Richfield , Quesnellemouthe (which would later be shortened to Quesnel ), Horsefly and, around the site of the Hudson's Bay Company's fort of the same name, Alexandria . The Cariboo Gold Rush
54-541: A pack train . Because supplies were scarce, the prices of even the most everyday items were extremely high. High prices for goods in Barkerville did not ease up until the Cariboo Road had been finished, when goods could be transported by huge freight wagons. Soon, movers of freight boasted that they could pack and carry a set of champagne glasses without any breakage—for a price, of course. More women came to Barkerville after
81-461: A subarctic climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfc ), which makes it have long, cold and snowy winter and short and cool summers due to its high altitude and latitude. Its growing season averages only 66 days. Cariboo Runaway Cariboo Runaway is a young adult novel by Canadian writer Sandy Frances Duncan , published in 1976. Set in the Cariboo region of British Columbia during
108-449: A benevolent association for recent arrivals. It is representative of the community building among immigrant Chinese labourers and merchants in new settlements throughout Canada. Barkerville Historic Town and Park Camping Sites consists of three sites: Government Hill Site (7.4 acres), Lowhee Site (49.4 acres), and Forest Rose Site (79 acres), all of which are operated by Barkerville Historic Town and Park. Having been fully restored in
135-455: Is left ambiguous . Elva is outraged but soon comes to accept Tim's choice because she starts to rely on his presence. Together, they face many obstacles and dangers, and discover that their father is in jail. It is up to the children to free their father. The novel is frequently taught in elementary school units on the Gold Rush. This article about a young adult novel of the 1970s
162-650: Is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Quesnel . BC Highway 26 , which follows the route of the Cariboo Wagon Road , the original access to Barkerville, goes through it. Barkerville is located on the western edge of the Cariboo Mountains in British Columbia. It was named after Billy Barker from Cambridgeshire , England, who
189-526: Is the most famous of the gold rushes in British Columbia , so much so that it is sometimes erroneously cited as the reason for the creation of the Colony of British Columbia . The Colony's creation had been prompted by an influx of American prospectors to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush three years earlier in 1858, which had its locus in the area from Lillooet to Yale . Unlike its southern counterpart,
216-693: The BC Ministry of the Environment repealed "Barkerville Provincial Park" and transferred ownership of it to the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts to create Barkerville Historic Town and Park . In 2008, Barkerville's Chee Kung Tong Building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada . The two-storey board and batten structure was completed in 1877 and originally used by the Chee Kung Tong organization,
243-462: The Cariboo Gold Rush of 1864, the novel follows Elva Parkhurst, a young girl from Victoria who disguises herself as a boy in order to find her father after he disappears while prospecting in the Cariboo. The main character, 13-year-old Elva T. Parkhurst, discovers that her little brother, Tim, also known as Timothy Parkhurst, may have followed her aboard the famous S.S. Beaver, although this
270-602: The Cariboo riding were among the most pro-Confederation in the colony, and this was in no small part because of the strong Canadian element in the local populace. One reason the Cariboo rush attracted fewer Americans than the original Fraser rush may have been the American Civil War , with many who had been around after the Fraser Gold Rush going home to take sides, or to the Fort Colville Gold Rush which
297-430: The 1950s, Barkerville appears as it did in its heyday. The history of each building has been researched and documented. No residents remain; they were either bought out or moved to New Barkerville during the restoration of the site. In 1980 part of the western movie Harry Tracy, Desperado was made here. The 2022 Punjabi film, Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya , directed by Amrinder Gill , was also shot here. Barkerville has
SECTION 10
#1732838151098324-532: The Cariboo area during the Cariboo Gold Rush. "Cariboo Road" by Alan Sullivan - published 1946, is a fictional historical novel about a family that travels from San Francisco to seek gold near Williams Creek. The story is set in 1862. Barkerville, British Columbia Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia , Canada , and is preserved as a historic town. It
351-538: The canyon of the Thompson River to Ashcroft and from there via the valley of the Bonaparte River to join the older route from Lillooet at Clinton . Towns along the Cariboo Road include Clinton, 100 Mile House and Williams Lake , although most had their beginnings before the Cariboo rush began. During the rush, the largest and most important town lay at the road's end at Barkerville, which had grown up around
378-456: The construction of the Cariboo Road. Cattle were driven north up the Okanagan valley via what is now Highway 97 into Canada to provide meat for the miners and residents of Barkerville. At first, the town consisted only of makeshift cabins and tents. By the mid-1860s, however, Barkerville and the surrounding area had a population estimated between 3000 and 5000 people. Even though its population
405-546: The most profitable and famous of the many Cariboo mining camps. The Cariboo Wagon Road was an immense infrastructure burden for the colony but needed to be built to enable access and bring governmental authority to the Cariboo goldfields, which was necessary in order to maintain and assert control of the wealth, which might more easily have passed through the Interior to the United States. The wagon road's most important freight
432-546: The population of the Cariboo Gold Rush was largely British and Canadian , among them 4000 were Chinese, although the first wave of the rush was largely American. By the time the Cariboo rush broke out there was more active interest in the Gold Colony (as British Columbia was often referred to) in the United Kingdom and Canada and there had also been time required for more British and Canadians to get there. The electorate of
459-706: The rest of the province, in particular triggering the Omineca and Cassiar Gold Rushes , just as the Cariboo itself had been found by miners seeking out in search of new finds from the Fraser rush. The boom in the Cariboo goldfields was the impetus for the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road by the Royal Engineers , which bypassed the older routes via the Fraser Canyon and the Lakes Route (Douglas Road) via Lillooet by using
486-411: The so-called "sober set," church services were extremely well attended. The general stores were the most profitable of the merchants. As they had the only source of food, the store owners could increase the price of foods and supplies. In the height of the gold rush, the stores sold flour for as high as $ 1.25 per pound. Beans, meat, and dried fruit were sold for a dollar a pound. But as the gold rush ended,
513-463: The stores went bankrupt and finally out of business. People of Chinese descent were an important part of Barkerville life for almost a hundred years. They established a number of businesses, including the Kwong Lee Company of Victoria ., a general store that sold groceries, clothing, hardware, and mining tools. The company had stores in other parts of British Columbia, but the Barkerville store
540-480: Was among those who first struck gold at the location in 1862. His claim was the richest and the most famous. Barkerville was built up almost overnight, and was a case of "growth via word of mouth". It grew as fast as the word of Barker's strike spread. His claim would eventually yield 37,500 ounces (1,065 kg/2,350 lb) of gold. Before the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road , people hauled their own supplies to Barkerville, either on their backs or in
567-518: Was declining by the end of the 19th century and it eventually had only a few residents. It had a revival in the 1930s, when the Great Depression caused widespread unemployment, and the price of gold skyrocketed. But as the depression turned for the better, Barkerville declined to a very small village. On 12 January 1959, BC Parks established Barkerville Historic Park by Order-in-Council with an initial area of 64.84 hectares (160.2 acres). This
SECTION 20
#1732838151098594-525: Was destroyed by a fire that spread quickly through the wooden buildings. Rebuilding began immediately, and at an impressive pace. Within six weeks, ninety buildings had been rebuilt. Boardwalks were improved, and the narrow and winding main street was widened and straightened. By 1880, there were enough children in the area to build the Barkerville School. It had thirteen pupils and one piece of school equipment—a chalkboard. Even so, Barkerville's population
621-402: Was increased in 1973 to 457.29 hectares (1,130.0 acres). In 1998, Barkerville Historic Park was dissolved and two properties were created: Barkerville Provincial Park and Barkerville Historic Town (Provincial Heritage Property). Barkerville Provincial Park converted from Order In Canada to statute designation in 2000; the whole area consisted of roughly 55 hectares (140 acres). However, in 2006,
648-464: Was largely manned by men who had been on the Fraser or to other BC rushes such as those at Rock Creek and Big Bend . While some of the population that came for the Cariboo rush stayed on as permanent settlers, taking up land in various parts of the Interior in the 1860s and after, that wasn't the general rule for those involved in the Fraser rush. Many veterans of the Cariboo would spread out to explore
675-482: Was one of the most impressive in town. The Chinese community also built cabins (for Chinese miners, who saved money by sharing four or five to a cabin) and Tai Ping (the "Peace Room"), the equivalent of a modern nursing home. Chinese benevolent associations provided social services to the Chinese community, and also resolved disputes within the Chinese community without the use of BC courts. On September 16, 1868, Barkerville
702-572: Was the Gold Escort, which brought government bullion to Yale for shipment to the colonial treasury. Despite the wealth of the Cariboo goldfields, the expense of colonizing the Cariboo contributed to the Mainland Colony's virtual bankruptcy and its forced union with the Island Colony, and similarly into Confederation. A 1976 young adult novel, Cariboo Runaway , by Sandy Frances Duncan , is set in
729-579: Was transient and largely dependent on mining, Barkerville was becoming more of a real community. It had several general stores and boarding houses, a drugstore that also sold newspapers and cigars, a barbershop that cut women's as well as men's hair, the "Wake-Up Jake Restaurant and Coffee Salon", a theatre (the Theatre Royal ), and a literary society (the Cariboo Literary Society). Horse racing and prize fighting were common entertainments. Among
#97902