Panning for the past in historic Barkerville
Once a thriving gold rush boom town in the Cariboo Chilcotin, today Barkerville is the largest living-history museum in western North America and a bucket list destination for every British Columbian.
Back in the 1850s, a British prospector named Billy Barker had given up on California and headed north to try his luck. Good thing he did; on Aug. 17, 1862, he struck gold here on Williams Creek, 80 kilometres east of Quesnel, and the rush was on. It turned out to be the world’s greatest creekside placer gold deposit ever found, a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar bonanza that helped build this province.
The town of Barkerville grew up virtually overnight. From a smattering of tents and ramshackle cabins, it became a prosperous, if somewhat transient, community of 5,000 people, with several general stores including the Chinese-owned Kwong Lee Company as well as numerous boarding houses, saloons, churches for the “sober set,” a theatre and a literary society. Like so many frontier towns, it burned down, back in 1868, and was rebuilt with haste and optimism. It flourished until the gold rush ended and the price of gold fell; by the end of the Depression it was just a small village in the wilderness.
It was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924 and a Provincial Heritage Property in 1958, a year after the B.C. government decided it should be restored and turned into a tourist attraction.
Today it is known as Barkerville Historic Town and it still boasts more than 140 well-maintained historic buildings and displays where you can watch costumed characters enact life in the 19th century. Visitors can experience authentic gold rush theatre and pan for gold, browse in Chinatown shops, watch a courtroom in action or take lessons in a traditional schoolhouse.
Barkerville also has accommodations, numerous campsites and plenty of merchants and restaurants, making it a comfortable trip back into B.C.’s golden age.