Canada's Cariboo Gold Rush Is Kept Alive in a Town Called Barkerville

Canada's Cariboo Gold Rush is kept alive in a town called Barkerville

SOURCE: The Washington Post By Julia Duin Published July 16, 2019

Back in the 19th century, people were three years and 237 miles later at the Fraser crazy about hunting for gold. They traveled all River settlement of Quesnel. over North America — in “gold rushes” toward the latest find. Ordinary people quickly Communities sprang up along the way. became miners, and their desire for the There are still towns named for the distance precious metal was so strong, it had a name: they are from Lillooet: “70 Mile House,” “100 gold rush fever. Mile House” and “150 Mile House.” The “house” was a roadhouse where travelers The most famous gold rushes were in could get lodging and food. At 150 Mile House, California (1848) and the Klondike region in one can stop at a restored 1896 schoolhouse northwestern Canada near Alaska (1896). But that was cutting edge for its time with a cloak there was also the Cariboo Gold Rush (1858) room, a barrel stove and separate outhouses, along the Fraser River Valley, just north of or outdoor bathrooms, for boys and girls. present-day Vancouver, British Columbia. The biggest stash of gold was in the An estimated 30,000 Americans left wilderness east of Quesnel at a spot called California’s Gold Rush to chase their fortune in Barkerville (named after British prospector the area. As miners and settlers made their Billy Barker), some 4,300 feet up on the way up the Fraser River looking for more gold western edge of the Cariboo Mountains. ─ and stripping the resident native tribes of His gold strike near Williams Creek in 1862 their land ─ the government built a rough road revealed the world’s largest creek-side gold to accommodate them. Called the Cariboo nugget deposit. Wagon Road, it was built in 1862 at the mountainous hamlet of Lillooet and finished

Buildings sprung up there overnight, and If you visit, take in the local Anglican for a time Barkerville was the largest North Church, print shop, blacksmith and American city west of St. Louis, Missouri, and cemeteries. And don’t miss the opportunity north of San Francisco, California. to pan for gold chips and flakes. You won’t strike it rich, but you may go home with a tiny The gold rush ended long ago, but you golden souvenir. can visit Barkerville to see what a 19th-century frontier town looked like. Set on 1,130 acres, LEARN MORE it’s nearly four times the size of Colonial Even if you can’t travel to British Williamsburg. There are more than 125 historic Columbia’s Fraser River Valley, you can find buildings and costumed reenactors who out more about the Cariboo Gold Rush at pretend to be settlers from the 1860s. One these websites. plays the part of “Miss Florence Wilson,” who came from Britain to Canada in 1864 on a ship • The B.C. Gold Rush blog: of women meant to be future wives for male bcgoldrushpress.com. miners. She waves a parasol as she gives tours of the town. Then there’s a “Mrs. Thompson,” a • Helpful stuff for kids: grouchy teacher dressed in a long skirt with a cariboogoldrush.com. bustle and a bonnet who teaches the three Rs the Victorian way in an 1874 schoolhouse. • The Royal British Columbia Museum: royalbcmuseum.bc.ca. You will see Chinatown, which is decorated with red banners, red Chinese • Barkerville’s official site: lanterns and flags. It honors the 5,000 to 8,000 barkerville.ca. immigrants from China’s Pearl River Delta who made their way across the Pacific Ocean, then on foot from the coast to Barkerville (a three-week walk) to labor in the gold fields.

Visitors to the historical town of Barkerville, British Columbia, can ride a stagecoach. Thousands flocked to the town during the Cariboo Gold Rush in the 19th century to look for the precious metal. Photo by: Thomas Drasdaukis

Visitors can still pan for gold (typically much smaller than these nuggets). Photo by: Lynn Stevens