Gold along the Fraser

Ann Turner is Financial and Budget Manager at the University of British
Columbia Library.

The Cariboo gold rush of the 1850s is one of the most colourful and best-known chapters in British Columbia’s history. Though few of the prospectors actually became rich in the goldfields, over 25,000 came to try their luck. They left a mother lode of stories behind them. This small book describes the gold rush and later gold mining activities in terms of some of their significant personalities and incidents. Billy Barker, immortalized in the restored town of Barkerville, is probably the best-known character, but others, such as Ned McGowan, Fred Wells, and Delina Noel, had important roles to play. The book is carefully researched and bountifully illustrated with original photographs of the times. An index would have enhanced the presentation, but it is none the less a highly readable account of this exciting era.