I found gold in Barkerville!!!

We arrived in Barkerville in the rain (notice a theme??) on July 15th. When we pulled up to register there was a huge black bear eating berries in the trees just outside the registration office, and a park employee on a 4 wheeler with an air horn attempting to scare him away. The bear was not overly concerned and I’m pretty sure walked across the road into our campground. Shortly after we got set up, another park employee was driving around our campground with another airhorn, and bear “evidence” was right beside our site!! We are very bear aware, so we were fine!

We knew Barkerville was a National Historic Site of Canada and a Provincial Heritage Property with an incredibly significant history about the Cariboo Gold Rush; however, we did not realize that Barkerville was such a cornerstone in the development of Canada and the founding British Columbia as well as the site of the first-ever Dominion Day (now Canada Day) despite the fact that B.C. didn’t even join the confederation until three years later in 1871.

Barkerville was originally settled in 1862 as a result of the Cariboo Gold Rush when Billy Barker, an English prospector, dug a deep hole and struck gold in Williams Creek, B.C. The creek runs adjacent to the town and was one of the most concentrated pay dirts of gold in the world and was once the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. At its peak, the population of Barkerville was about 5,000, half of which were Chinese. Nowhere is this more evident than Barkerville's Chinatown, which is home to the oldest Chee Kung Tong building in Canada. The Chinese played a huge part of this incredible history; however they were not treated equally to their white counterparts, being paid much less for the same or more work. In fact, the Premier of BC in 2014 delivered the legislative Assembly's apology for the treatment of the Chinese in BC through discriminatory historical laws.

Barkerville is now the largest living-history museum in Western North America with a unique streetscape of 125+ heritage buildings, authentic displays, satellite museums, restaurants, shops and accommodations. So many history lessons about the determination, the hardworking and resilience of the people of Barkerville back in the 1800s! The town actually burned down in 1868. A fire starting in the saloon quickly spread across the street to the Bank of British North America and then continued to spread until the whole town was gone. It took less than 2 hours!! The people of Barkerville banned together and within 6 weeks approximately 32 businesses and 65 houses were rebuilt.

We participated in a guided tour with one of the Barkerville characters. Unfortunately, we arrived late so I can’t tell you which character from the past she was. There was a bakery at opened at 10 (same time as the tour started), and if you’ve been following my blog, you know I’m in search of an old fashion cinnamon roll!! She told us stories from the perspective of the Europeans in Barkerville. You could also talk to characters and learn about the history from the Chinese perspective as well as the Indigenous perspective. So much!! We heard stories about specific people, groups of people, families, various prospectors; how they came to Barkerville, their lifestyles while living in Barkerville, their successes and failures as they mined for gold, and ultimately their deaths. We visited many graves of miners and heard their stories. It was an incredible place!

Along with the personal stories dating back to the 1800s of the early residents of Barkerville we also learned about the evolution of gold mining from that time through to today. I was able to experience firsthand how to mine gold by panning. It’s a very slow process!! Oh, I found gold flakes while panning for gold!

If you ever have the opportunity, we highly recommend a visit to Barkerville.

Don't forget to check out the pics in the Albums tab!

We left Barkerville how we arrived, in the rain! Heading to Williams Lake...I can feel the sun already!!