The Cariboo Gold Rush is the most famous of the gold rushes in British Columbia and is erroneously sometimes mentioned as the reason for the creation of the Colony of British Columbia. In fact, the colony was created three years earlier in response to an influx of American prospectors seeking gold during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, which had its locus in the area from Lillooet to Yale]. Unlike its southern counterpart, the population of the Cariboo gold rush was largely British and Canadian (meaning those from what was still then a separate set of colonies), whereas the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush had been overwhelmingly American, Chinese but also a polyglot European mix including many Germans, Scandinavians, Slavs and Southern Europeans, as well as Mexicans, Central and South Americans, West Indians, Kanakas and others. Queen Charlottes Gold Rush Fraser Canyon Gold Rush (1858 – 1860) Rock Creek Gold Rush Cariboo Gold Rush (1861) Wild Horse Creek Gold Rush Big Bend Gold Rush Omineca Gold Rush Tulameen Gold Rush Cayoosh Gold Rush Atlin Gold Rush (1898) Stewart Gold Rush Bridge River Gold Rush Goldstream Gold Rush... The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony of British North America from 1858 until 1871. ... The Gold Rush of British Columbia occurred after gold was discovered in the Fraser River Valley. ... Lillooet (formerly Cayoosh Flat) is a small but historic and highly scenic community on the Fraser River in western Canada, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) up the British Columbia Railway line from Vancouver. ... Front Street, Yale, British Columbia circa 1882 during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. ... The Gold Rush of British Columbia occurred after gold was discovered in the Fraser River Valley. ... This article is about the continent. ... Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe and includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ... Slav may refer to: Slavic peoples, people who indigenously reside in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and many have later settled in Northern Asia Slav (settlement), an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Southern Europe is a region of the European continent. ... Map of Central America Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... Kanaka was an lead actress in Tamil movies. ...

Some of the population that came for the Cariboo rush also stayed on as permanent settlers, taking up land in various parts of the Interior in the 1860s and after, with the city of Quesnel the largest and most notable of gold rush-founded towns and ranching areas. Towns along the Cariboo Road include Clinton, 100 Mile House and Williams Lake, although the largest and most important lay at the road's end at Barkerville, which had grown up around the most profitable and most famous of the many Cariboo mining camps. The Cariboo Road was built to enable access and also bring govermental authority to the Cariboo goldfields, although most had their beginnings before the Cariboo rush began. Others spread out to explore the rest of the province, veterans of the Cariboo particularly triggering the Omineca and Stikine Gold Rushes, just as the Cariboo itself had been found by miners seeking out in search of new finds from the Fraser rush. Quesnel is a city in the Cariboo District of British Columbia, Canada. ... Route of the Cariboo Road in red. ... Clinton is a village in central British Columbia, Canada. ... 100 Mile House is a town located in central British Columbia, Canada. ... Williams Lake is a city in British Columbia, Canada. ... Ť Barkervilles main street, taken in June 2004, showing the historic buildings and a small stream of water flowing down its sloped, unpaved, roads. ...

One reason the Cariboo rush had less Americans than the original Fraser rush may have been the American Civil War, with many who had been around after the Fraser gold rush going home to take sides, or to the Colville and Colorado gold rushes, which were largely manned by men who had been on the Fraser and in other BC rushes such as those at Rock Creek and Big Bend.

Conversely a reason the Cariboo rush did have more Canadians and Britons in it was the more established access to get to the colony, and particularly once arrived to get to the remote wilderness at the northeast corner of the Cariboo plateau where its goldfields are. During the Fraser gold rush the relatively few Canadians among it were those who, like Amor de Cosmos and Gassy Jack Deighton, had been at hand in California when the Fraser rush broke, or had been adventurous enough to strike out on the long and difficult journey via the United States to get to the newly-declared colony. By the time the Cariboo rush broke out there was more active interest in the gold colony in the UK and Canada and there had also been time for more Britons and Canadians to get there. It should be noted that the electorate of the Cariboo riding were among the most pro-Confederation in the colony, and this was in no small part because of the strong Canadian element in the local populace.

The Cariboo Gold Rush is the most famous of the gold rushes in British Columbia, so much so it is sometimes erroneously cited as the reason for the creation of the Colony of British Columbia which was in fact prompted by the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush three years earlier. Some of the population that came for the Cariboo rush also stayed on as permanent settlers, unlike the general rule for those involved in the Fraser gold rush. Queen Charlottes Gold Rush Fraser Canyon Gold Rush (1858 – 1860) Rock Creek Gold Rush Cariboo Gold Rush (1861) Wild Horse Creek Gold Rush Big Bend Gold Rush Omineca Gold Rush Tulameen Gold Rush Cayoosh Gold Rush Atlin Gold Rush (1898) Stewart Gold Rush Bridge River Gold Rush Goldstream Gold Rush... The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony of British North America from 1858 until 1871. ...

The rush began in 1861 with the discovery of gold at Keithley Creek, east of Quesnel. Unlike the placer diggings of the Fraser, the Cariboo gold field required shaft-digging and other more industrial technologies, although not exactly hard rock mining. Several towns grew up, the most famous of these being Barkerville, now preserved as a heritage site and tourist attraction. Other important towns of the Cariboo gold rush era were Keithley Creek, Quesnel Forks, Antler, Richfield, Quesnellemouthe and Fort Alexandria. Quesnel is a town in the north of British Columbia, Canada. ... A sluice box used in placer mining Placer mining (pronounced plass-er) is a open-pit or open-cast form of mining by which certain valuable minerals are extracted from the earth without tunneling. ... Hard rock mining refers to various techniques used to mine ore bodies by creating underground rooms or stopes supported by surrounding pillars of standing rock. ... Ť Barkervilles main street, taken in June 2004, showing the historic buildings and a small stream of water flowing down its sloped, unpaved, roads. ...

The boom in the Cariboo goldfields was the impetus for the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road by the Royal Engineers, which bypassed the older routes via the Fraser Canyon and Lakes Route via Lillooet by using the valley of the Thompson River to Ashcroft and from there via the valley of the Bonaparte River to join the older route from Lillooet at Clinton. A portion of the Cariboo Road, circa 1867–1868 The Cariboo Road (also called the Cariboo Wagon Road, the Great North Road or the Queens Highway) was a project initiated in 1862 by the colonial Governor of British Columbia, James Douglas. ... The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. ... Route of the Douglas Road (water portions in blue, land portions in red) and the Cariboo Road (green) The Douglas Road, aka the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior. ... Lillooet (formerly Cayoosh Flat) is a small but historic and highly scenic community on the Fraser River in western Canada, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) up the British Columbia Railway line from Vancouver. ... Ashcroft is a village in central British Columbia, Canada. ... The Bonaparte River is a tributary of the Thompson River, joining it at the community of Ashcroft, British Columbia. ... Lillooet (formerly Cayoosh Flat) is a small but historic and highly scenic community on the Fraser River in western Canada, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) up the British Columbia Railway line from Vancouver. ... Clinton is a village in central British Columbia, Canada. ...

The Cariboo Wagon Road was an immense infrastructure burden for the colony, but necessary in order to maintain and assert control of the Cariboo goldfields, the wealth of which might more easily have passed through the Interior to the United States. Once completed - after the Cariboo gold rush was over but with producing mines in the many goldfield towns which were established then and thereafter, including Richfield, Antler, Williams Creek, Bullion and Quesnel Forks (aka Keithley Creek, or "the Forks").

The wagon road's most important freight was the Gold Escort, which brought government bullion to Yale for shipment to the colonial treasury. Despite the wealth of the Cariboo goldfields, the expense of colonizing the Cariboo contributed to the mainland colony's virtual bankruptcy and its forced union with the Island Colony, and similarly into Confederation.

See also

• Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
• Big Bend Gold Rush
• Rock Creek Gold Rush
• Omineca Gold Rush
• Cariboo Road
• Old Cariboo Road
• Douglas Road
• River Trail