In 1858, some 30,000 gold seekers stampeded to the Fraser River. Scores perished during the gruelling journey, but some made their fortune and many pressed on northwards to the creeks of the Cariboo. Originally compiled by Art Downs, founder of Heritage House, this is a vivid and detailed account of the first gold strikes, the miners who made them and the incredible efforts to establish transportation routes and build roads to the Cariboo goldfields. Here are the stories of the legendary Williams Creek diggings, which yielded a golden harvest of over $2.6 million in 1862, and creeks with names like Lightning, Jack of Clubs and Last Chance. Also included are excerpts from the journals of Lord Milton and Walter B. Cheadle, who became the first tourists to the Cariboo in 1863. Richly descriptive and touched with humour, their first-hand account is a fascinating window into Cariboo history.

When gold was discovered on the Fraser River, the rush was on. By early spring of 1858 the need for shelter, food, rest stops and stores became very apparent, as miners and would-be-miners made their way up into the hinterland. From Yale to Barkerville, roadhouses sprung up along the Cariboo's gold-rush trail. From their crude beginning, the roadhouses soon grew to be more than just stopovers. The roadhouses are gone, but the communities, villages, towns and cities remain. Golden Nuggets, with pictures and written text, brings the roadhouses back to life and gives us a glimpse of yesterday.

A newly revised and updated edition of the classic pictorial account of the Cariboo Gold Rush trail. First published in 1960, Wagon Road North is the quintessential popular history book chronicling gold-rush-era BC. Focusing on the Cariboo Wagon Road—the crucial transportation route stretching from Fort Yale to Barkerville that made it possible for tens of thousands of prospectors to make their way to the Cariboo goldfields in the 1860s—this newly updated, expanded, and re-designed edition brings to life the adventures, hardships, and blind ambitions of the men and women who risked everything in the quest for gold. Packed with more than one hundred archival photos, many of them rarely seen, as well as maps and contemporary images of historical sites, this fascinating book is a visual celebration of a pivotal chapter in early BC history.

Describes the late nineteenth-century gold rush to Canada's Fraser River, its hardships and tragedies, its rare success stories, and its effect on the settlement of northern British Columbia.

These vivid stories describe the devastation of the Indians by the whiteman's disease, Billy Barker "the heart of the Cariboo", and John Cameron, who buried his wife four times. The rugged men and women of BC's own gold rush stride off the impossible trails and out of the incredible scenery of the late 1800's in this stirring account of the gold strikes, the gigantic gains, and the strike-outs. This book began in the fall of 1975 when I made my initial trip, alone and by car, to Barkerville to talk to the descendants of early miners and to photograph some of the original gold mining sites. In order to capture the same thrill of adventure experienced by gold seekers, I wanted to sleep out under the stars. As my arrival at Barkerville occurred after dark, I left the main highway and followed a dirt road in search of a place to bed down away from vehicular noises. A short time after dozing off, I was awakened by some loud banging of tin cans which sent me scurrying for the safety of my car. I turned on the headlights to discover that the noisemakers were a couple of black bears. I had camped in the hill overlooking the town dump. En route to the one time gold capital of the world, I stopped off at the museum at Clinton and departed from this treasure house with the understanding that I would pay the curator a longer visit on my way home. As it turned out, I found Barkerville so intriguing that I overstayed my alotted time, resulting in a non-stop drive homeward which had me passing through Clinton in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, other commitments took priority over the over the research and several years elapsed before I was able to carry on with the project which became this book. I then realized the value of the interviews from that 1975 trip.

In 1860’s Victoria, British Columbia, seventeen-year-old Robb McDonald is in love with high-society Emma. But Robb, his father, and his brothers work at the Hudson’s Bay post, and their lowly position makes him an unacceptable husband in the British class system in which they live. Determined to win Emma’s heart, and the approval of her father, Robb leaves his family behind and joins a group of American miners heading north along the Fraser River, hoping to strike it rich in the BC gold rush. He must grow up fast in this uncharted and daunting land as he and his new friends face scarce food, wild animals, the violence of desperate men who will kill to get gold, and the lack of law enforcement to prevent it. Part coming-of-age novel, part adventure, and part Canadian historical fiction, Nuggets is the poignant and compelling story of how one young man sets out to find gold only to find so much more.