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The Gold Rush

There were two major gold rushes in British Columbia - one occurring around 1858 on the Fraser River and the other in 1862 in the Cariboo district.

Useful Websites

Useful Website Description

A very comprehensive site on the old town and gold mining from the Cariboo Goldfields Historical Society, the Royal BC Museum and BC Heritage.

Useful Website Description

This site, maintained by the Cariboo Sentinel, has historical information, online issues of the Gold Rush Trail Journal, and information on what's happening at the historic town site.

Useful Website Description

BC Archives website of photos and text describing this Gold Rush of the 1860s.

Useful Website Description

A BC Heritage website with historical documents, images, and other multimedia information on the Cariboo Wagon Road, Barkerville, and Yale.

Digital Library Resources

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Culture and History Subject Icon

A selection of historical images of Vancouver and British Columbia from the 1880s to the 1980s.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Cover Image for Barkerville, Williams Creek, Cariboo: A Gold Rush Experience

Barkerville, Williams Creek, Cariboo: A Gold Rush Experience

Wright, Richard

971.175 W95d1

1998

The stories of the men and women who dug for gold on Williams Creek are told in this new, revised edition of a Canadian bestseller. This book brings to life the men and women of the creeks, who came in search of gold and left their mark on B.C. history.

Remote Media URL
Cover Image for Gold and Grand Dreams: Cariboo East in the Early Years

Gold and Grand Dreams: Cariboo East in the Early Years

Elliott, Marie

971.175 E467g

2000

This is the story of entrepreneurs Sam Adler and the Barry Brothers, administrators Phillip Nind and William Stephenson, far-sighted engineer John Hobson, and those grizzled prospectors, the 'Snowshoe Boys'. It is also the story of Chinese miners, Native residents, and the few women who made the long trek to Cariboo East.

Cover Image for Gold at Fortymile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon

Gold at Fortymile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon

Gates, Michael

971.91 G25g

1994

The book, based on the accounts of dozens of prospectors, follows the first gold-seekers from their arrival in 1873 until the stampede to the Klondike in 1896. Gates captures the essence of these early years of the gold rush, about which very little has been written.

Gold Trails [&] Ghost Towns: Series #15, The Mighty Fraser

Marty, Ken & Roberts, Mike & Barlee, N. L. & CHBC (Television station : Kelowna, B.C.)

971.1 G61f

1987

Gold Trails and Ghost Towns is a historical documentary show first produced for Canadian syndication, created and produced by Kelowna television station CHBC-TV and hosted by Mike Roberts with historian storyteller Bill Barlee. Mike and Bill discussed history of the old West by prospectors around 1900 in British Columbia.

Map Of The Cariboo And Omenica Gold Fields, And The Routes Thereto

Patterson, William D.

971.12 C27P3m

1871

1 map : mounted on linen ; 40 x 53 cm. folded to 14 x 10 cm. + 1 sheet

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Cover Image for The Klondike Gold Rush

The Klondike Gold Rush

Arrowsmith, Doug & Gold, L. Harvey

971.91 K6621a

2015

Renowned as the richest gold strike in North American mining history, the Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899) set off a stampede of over 100,000 people on a colossal journey from Alaska to the gold fields of Canada's Yukon Territory.

Remote Media URL
Cover Image for Yukon Gold: High Hopes and Dashed Dreams

Yukon Gold: High Hopes and Dashed Dreams

Preyde, James & Preyde, Susan

971.91 P94y

1995

High hopes and Dashed dreams celebrates the centennial of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Northwest History Index

This card index in Special Collection provides access to the Northwest History Collection, a heritage collection covering the early history and exploration of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

The collection includes:

  • magazine and newspaper articles
  • pamphlets
  • books
  • chapters in books
  • many other resources

As of August 1998, no new material has been added to the Northwest History Index. It is continued by the British Columbia Index.