Between 1849 and the end of the century, the Cariboo Gold Rush was a series of gold rushes that occurred in western North America. These rushes greatly impacted the history of British Columbia, and took a huge part in the development of BC. In central California, gold was discovered along the Sacramento River in 1848. Travelling to California, thousands of people in 1849 left their homes and jobs with the thought that the gold-bearing banks contained gold nuggets the size of your fist. However, most of those who traveled to California ended up working in mines. By the mid-1850s, others became broke and unemployed.
In Late 1857, with a cargo full of furs, an HBC trader arrived in Fort Victoria possessing two vials filled with gold dust and small nuggets. This gold was panned from Thompson River. Greedy miners began arriving during the winter of 1857 to 1858. In early 1858, word reached San Francisco and hundreds of unemployed miners traveled to the north. As the year progressed, more ships arrived, and by the end of the summer, more than 10,000 American miners were working on the Fraser River. Because of the large numbers of Americans in the Fraser area, Douglas feared American annexation. In 1858, Douglas declared a second Crown colony on the mainland, which created British Columbia. He then enforced laws that controlled the miners. More gold was discovered in the 1860s.
In Late 1857, with a cargo full of furs, an HBC trader arrived in Fort Victoria possessing two vials filled with gold dust and small nuggets. This gold was panned from Thompson River. Greedy miners began arriving during the winter of 1857 to 1858. In early 1858, word reached San Francisco and hundreds of unemployed miners traveled to the north. As the year progressed, more ships arrived, and by the end of the summer, more than 10,000 American miners were working on the Fraser River. Because of the large numbers of Americans in the Fraser area, Douglas feared American annexation. In 1858, Douglas declared a second Crown colony on the mainland, which created British Columbia. He then enforced laws that controlled the miners. More gold was discovered in the 1860s.
The cariboo road:
All the gold that was removed from British Columbia was taxable. In the early 1860s, Governor Douglas decided to build a road to the goldfields. This was to ensure that the gold leaving the region was using the Fraser and not through US territory. Encouraging settlement, a roadway was a good means of economic development. From Yale, along the Fraser Canyon, to the new centre of the Cariboo, Barkerville, the road covered 650 kilometres. However, by the mid-1860s, the gold rush was coming to an end, and much of the money spent into building the Cariboo Road was wasted. In 1864, James Douglas retired. He was replaced by Frederick Seymour and Arthur Kennedy.