Stepping Back in Time in Barkerville

Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia.  Much of the following history of Barkerville is quoted (with edits) from the website at http://www.cariboogoldrush.com/:

In 1858, word of the discovery of gold on the Fraser River reached the outside world and resulted in an influx of gold seekers from all corners of the globe.  William "Billy" Barker was an Englishman who arrived in Victoria in 1858. Barker, who was among the gold seekers along Williams Creek, sank a shaft below the canyon at Williams Creek and struck pay dirt.  News of the Barker strike spread rapidly. Soon, the town of Barkerville, named after Billy Barker, was born.

Barkerville grew alongside the Barker claims. Rude cabins and tents of the miners made way for more permanent log and frame buildings which housed a variety of businesses.  These buildings were raised on posts to avoid the mud, and wooden plank sidewalks were built.

In the early 1860's, food and supplies were carried to the Cariboo on miners' backs or by packtrains. The completion of the Cariboo Wagon Road to Barkerville in 1865 eased this problem greatly. Several stage companies ran from Barkerville. The most famous and longest was established by F.J. Barnard. His B.X. Express, later called the B.C. Express, ran all the way from Barkerville to Yale, which lies on the Fraser River north of Hope, B.C.

On September 16, 1868, Barkerville was engulfed by fire which spread through all the wooden buildings. Within two and a half hours, only a handful of buildings were left standing. Winter was approaching, so they had to rebuild fast.  Within six weeks, over 90% of the building were rebuilt.  Barkerville continued to be a thriving little town until the turn of the century, and in the 1930's it was soon eclipsed by the new mining town of Wells.  At its height, Barkerville was the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago.

In 1997, the government of British Columbia decided that the town should be restored and operated as a tourist attraction. Today, Barkerville appears as it did in its heyday and is referred to as Barkerville Historic Town. The history of each building has been researched and documented. No actual residents remain; they were either bought out or moved to New Barkerville during the restoration of the site.

We scheduled a stop at Quesnel, B.C. partly because we wanted to visit Barkerville.  So we eagerly anticipated the visit as we drove up the old Cariboo Wagon Road, into the mountains, toward the Town of Wells and the Historic Town of Barkerville.  We reached Jack'o'Clubs Lake, which sits in a dramatic setting beneath snow-capped peaks:

Beyond the lake, we passed through Wells and arrived in Barkerville.  Getting out of our truck, we passed through the entrance to the site and stepped back into the late 1800's.  Here is the town of Barkerville in its original glory:

The present site echoes the original, although the streets seem a mite less muddy and rutted:

A substantial portion of the population of Barkerville was of Chinese origin.  Like many western towns - especially those in the goldfields, Barkerville had its Chinatown:

The town also boasted some beautiful churches, including this one:

We visited the site before it opened this season, so none of the buildings were open and no re-enactors were there to give life to the town's history.  However, we could peer in the windows, and we were able to see some of the reconstructed interiors of homes in the town:

Here is the conjectural interior of a Chinese merchant's shop in town:

The town boasted a number of pubs.  Here is the interior of one of them.  It has more than a passing resemblance to classic English pubs, and it looked like it would be a cozy place to while away a cold winter's evening, shooting the breeze with friends:

The buildings include the fire hall, shown in the foreground below:

The Cariboo Gold Mining Co. operated in Barkerville in the early 1900's.  Its gold operations required large volumes of flowing water to sluice for gold in the mined rocks.  A long flume was build behind the town to bring water to the sluice from nearby Williams Creek:

Barkerville is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, a designation that is well deserved.  It boasts 107 buildings from the gold mining period and another 62 replicas of other buildings that were once located in Barkerville or nearby.  Many buildings are located on their original sites and have been refurbished based on detailed historical research.  The result is an experience nearly unmatched by other historic towns.  We were very happy that we had a chance to visit the site.

However, we were jealous we missed the opportunity to see Barkerville in the snow, as our good friends Nancy and George Finlayson did a couple of days ago:

Better luck next time!