Billy Barker

A legendary figure of the Cariboo gold rush, Billy Barker discovered the richest claim in the region, yielding more than $600,000 in its first year of operation. He had arrived in BC in 1862, jumping ship in Victoria and making his way to Williams Creek, where he found the area above the canyon already staked and producing small fortunes. Instead of trying his luck elsewhere in the Cariboo, Billy staked his claim below the canyon in the belief that a dry creek bed indicated a potential gold deposit. Ignoring the skepticism of other miners, he sank a shaft and began digging. At the 52-foot level a square foot of dirt turned up gold nuggets worth $1,000. Over the next four years, Billy Barker made and lost a fortune. In 1866 he left Barkerville, the town later named after him, and moved to Victoria where he died penniless in 1894.

Cariboo Pay Dirt

Words and Music by Valerie Dare

Billy Barker’s rags-to-riches to rags experience was repeated by many of the thousands of miners who dreamed of making their fortune in the gold fields. Billy’s success came through persistence. A recurring dream had told him he would strike gold 52 feet below the surface and he refused to give up before he reached that level.

My name is Billy Barker;
I sailed the wide blue sea.
And when I reached Victoria
I paid the miners’ fee.
I crossed the Straight of Georgia
My fortune for to make,
Steamed up the muddy Fraser
To find a claim to stake.

Ten feet down and no gold yet,
But I won't lose my shirt.
A dream said fifty-two feet down
Is where I’ll hit pay dirt.

“There’s no gold left to pan,” they said,
When I reach Fort Yale.
I bought a horse and packed my gear
And rode the Cariboo Trail.
Stagebrush camels, rattlesnakes
Were the sights I saw.
Teamsters drove their eight-horse rigs
Along the dusty draw.

Chorus:
Thirty feet and no gold yet, but I won’t lose my shirt.
A dream said fifty-two feet is where I’ll hit pay dirt.

Williams Creek was all staked out
Above the mining town.
Instead I claimed the land below
And sank a mine shaft down.

They laughed at me and scorned my site
Beside a rock outcrop.
Sand and stones and worthless shale…
My workers cried, “Let’s stop!”

Chorus:
Fifty feet and no gold yet, but I won’t lose my shirt.
A dream said fifty-two feet down is where I’ll hit pay dirt.

Two feet more I dug, and then
I reached the gravel seam.
Bonanza! Yellow gold at last…
Fulfillment of my dream.

Miners say that gold’s a curse;
Misfortune came my way.
I made $600,000
And gave it all away.

Chorus:
Six feet down and in my grave. My ragged pants and shirt
Belie the fact I once was rich from Cariboo pay dirt.

His name was Billy Barker;
He sailed the wide blue sea
And when he reached Victoria,
He paid the miners’ fee.

He crossed the Straight of Georgia,
Rode up to Cariboo.
You’ve listened to his story
And every word is true.

Vocabulary

miner’s fee – a tariff paid to the government in Victoria

claim – ownership of a tract of land for mining purposes

stake – assert a legal right to a mining claim

pay dirt – gold

pan – method of separating gold from gravel using a round shallow metal container

draw – a shallow gully

seam – a layer of gold or other mineral in the ground

belie – contradict