Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LAW, ORDER, AND GOLD
Firsts
In 1856 the first parliament west of the Great Lakes was elected, and Dr. J. S. Helmcken
became speaker. (Today you can still see his house in Victoria.) Only two years later,
this still relatively unexplored and quiet part of the world was turned upside down with
the first whispers of “gold” on the mainland, along the banks of the Fraser River. As the
news spread, miners—mostly Americans—arrived by the shipload at Victoria, increasing
the town's population from several hundred to more than 5,000. Fur trading faded as gold
mining jumped to the forefront. Realizing that enormous wealth could be buried on the
mainland, the British government quickly responded by creating a mainland colony that
at first was named New Caledonia. Because France possessed a colony of the same name
in the South Pacific, Queen Victoria was asked to change the name, which she did, using
“Columbia,” which appeared on local maps, and adding “British,” making the name distinct
from the Columbia River district across the border. In 1858, Governor James Douglas of
Vancouver Island also became governor of British Columbia, giving up his Hudson's Bay
Company position to serve both colonies. In 1866, the two colonies were combined into
one.
Cariboo Gold
The lucrative Cariboo gold rush resulted in construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road (also
called the Gold Rush Trail), an amazing engineering feat that opened up British Columbia's
interior. Completed in 1865, the road connected Yale with Barkerville, one of the richest
and wildest gold towns in North America. Mule trains and stagecoaches plied the route, and
roadhouses and boomtowns dotted its entire length. Among the colorful characters of this
era was Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie, an effective chief of law and order during a time
when law and order might easily have been nonexistent.
In addition to the gold miners, groups of settlers soon began arriving in the Cariboo.
One such group, a horde known as the Overlanders, left Ontario and Quebec with carts,
horses, and oxen in summer 1862, intent on crossing the vast plains and the Rockies to
British Columbia. One detachment rafted down the Fraser River, the other down the North
Thompson. Both arrived in Kamloops in autumn that same year. Some continued north up
the Cariboo Gold Rush Trail, but others headed for the coast, having had more than their
fill of adventure on the trip across.
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