The gold rush in BC began in 1858 with the arrival of miners from California seeking to strike it rich. The first stakes they claimed were along the Fraser River, where gold nuggets could be washed from the gravel and sediment along the banks. As the amount of placer gold declined in the Fraser Canyon, miners moved north, first to Lillooet and the Bridge River area and then on to the Cariboo. Miners poured into the region following strikes in 1860 by George Weaver and “Doc” Keithley, who found gold in the gravel bed of a creek flowing into Cariboo Lake. Gold fields in the Cariboo proved to be far richer than the gravel bars of the Fraser: Eyewitnesses to the gold rush reported that “… accounts of gold discoveries at Cariboo are perfectly fabulous and, at the same time, quite true. Large fortunes have been made in a few weeks, from £6,000 to £10,000 earned in a month or six weeks; many instances have occurred of £90 of gold being washed out of a tin pan full of earth. Old miners say they never saw anything like it in the last days of California in ’49 and ’50. Cariboo is a dreadful place to get at, however, right up in the mountains ... and inaccessible for 7 or 8 months of the year from snow.”

The Cariboo Gold Rush
Chinese Miners
Mining Technology
Song: Cariboo Pay Dirt
Learning Activities
Extension and Research Activities
Resource List