Beyond Hope: An Illustrated History of the Fraser and Cariboo Gold Rush

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

Hope, B.C., was the gateway to the Fraser Canyon gold fields and the
gold-crazed dreams of thousands of would-be prospectors. Many lost their
fortune and their hope before the gold rush ended. This book captures
the miners, their equipment, and the rough-and-ready society in which
the gold rush took place with first-hand clarity in more than a hundred
good-quality reproductions of photographs and excerpts from publications
of the period. A lively narrative accompanies them, placing them in
their chronological and geographical context and incorporating
quotations from contemporary newspapers, guidebooks, and the published
journals of travellers to the area. The gold strikes in the Fraser River
and Cariboo region followed those in California and Australia. The
authors compare the B.C. experience with the earlier ones and then link
it smoothly to the social and economic changes that followed when the
miners departed and debt-ridden British Columbia examined its options
for the future: annexation by the United States or confederation with
the eastern Canadian provinces. Beyond Hope is a very readable and vivid
history that brings its events to life as only contemporary photos can.