In 1848 in California the first gold rush began. By the 1850’s the gold rush had pretty much stopped. In the 18 60’s, the British Columbia came to a lot of peoples attention, because gold had been found on the Fraser River and in Cariboo. Which was occupied by Salish, Chilcotin Indians, trappers and fur traders. British Columbia had one gold rush in 1858 on the Fraser River and another one in 1862 in the Cariboo. Tens of thousands of men decided to sail north coming from San Francisco eager to land in Esquimalt Harbour which was on Vancouver Island, not far from Fort Victoria. British Columbia’s settlement and landscape started to expand greatly, as well as our government and laws. Fort Victoria is where the trail began and north 500 miles to Barkerville where the gold could be found.

The miners had to come first to Victoria to get a valid "mining license" which allowed them to seek for gold. Fort Victoria was small in 1858. 500 immigrants lived on southern Vancouver Island. Two months later, the population expanded to over 20,000. Some even traveled from Scotland, England, Germany and China to seek gold for their families. They came hoping to make a fortune while in the Cariboo. James Douglas allowed the construction of a road in 1859 called the Douglas Trail, which traveled from the coast to the interior. Rich strikes that were made on the upper Fraser River and in the Cariboo caused them to make roads the highest priority. In May 1862, the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road began.

Food was scarce and very expensive there, because it had to be brought in from Victoria by traveling the trail. At first most of the miners lived in tents, although a log cabin was better during the winter and rain. With few women to be found, they arranged for England to send young women to the Cariboo as proposed brides for some of the miners. Miners would make a minimum of $40 a day, and sometimes if they were lucky they’d get up to $300 a day. Some lucky prospectors were known to get gold in a single pan worth up to $75 or $100 dollars. The miners had to cut down the trees that were in the way before they could begin looking for gold in the ground. They chopped down large trees, which became lumber. The lumber was used to build mining equipment. In the summer of 1861, gold was being found, which created a lot of excitement. A company guessed that they had profited $80,000 by the start of August.

Once in awhile it could add up to 30 pounds of gold a day. By the end of the 1861, $2,600,000 worth of gold was found and made. In 1862, they found even more. By the end of 1863, the total value of the gold that was found was just under $4,000,000. A lot of the gold was discovered in the first five years of the Cariboo gold rush. With all the gold being found the miners faced a problem, and that was what to do with all the gold that they found.

- Robyn Monaghan