Cariboo Gold Rush

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The Cariboo Gold Rush happened in what is now British Columbia, Canada. The first gold was found in 1858 at Hills Bar, with more finds in 1859 on the Horsefly River and in 1860 at Keithley Creek and Antler Creek. The rush really began in 1861 when news spread, and by 1865 it was in full swing along Williams Creek. Towns grew up around the goldfields, the most famous being Barkerville, which is now a preserved heritage site. Other important towns were Keithley Creek, Quesnel Forks (also called “the Forks”), Antler, Richfield, Quesnel (formerly Quesnellemouthe), Horsefly, and Alexandria near a Hudson’s Bay Company fort.

The Cariboo rush is the best known gold rush in British Columbia. People sometimes say it started the Colony of British Columbia, but the colony grew in part because of the earlier Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858, which brought many Americans to the area. The Cariboo rush had mostly British and Canadian miners, including about 4,000 Chinese. The first wave of the rush had many Americans, but the American Civil War drew some away.

Some who came for the Cariboo rush stayed and settled in the Interior, while others moved on to other gold rushes in the province during the 1860s, helping to start the Omineca and Cassiar rushes. The boom also led to the building of the Cariboo Wagon Road by the Royal Engineers. The road connected the coast to the Cariboo region by traveling through the Thompson River canyon to Ashcroft, then along the Bonaparte River to Clinton.

Towns along the Cariboo Road included Clinton, 100 Mile House, and Williams Lake, with Barkerville at the road’s end being the main mining town. Building the road and running the goldfields was expensive and put a strain on the colony’s finances, helping push the Mainland Colony toward joining with Vancouver Island and later into Confederation.