The Cariboo Coast region steps back in time. It has a rich history dating back to the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1862, when Billy Barker struck gold—a discovery that started a rush of fortune seeker from all over the world. Between 1862 and 1870, over 100,000 people traveled the Cariboo Wagon Road.
Barkerville History
Our adventure started when our escort, Geoff Moore of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association, met us at our hotel in Quesnel (pronounced “kwenel”) for a drive to the historic Gold Rush town of Barkerville. A half hour east of Quesnel was the Cottonwood House, a heritage building and museum dating back to 1861. It tells the story of how life was at the turn of the century. All of Barkerville, except for Chinatown, had burned to the ground in 1868 but was quickly rebuilt two years later. Chinatown had its own water system and still has its original buildings. In May 1880, Chinese workers came from California and Canton, China, to work on the railroad at a dollar a day. Their dream was to return home rich men but, unfortunately, many died from the hard labor, scurvy, smallpox, and the careless handling of explosives. Many remained in British Columbia after the railway’s completion and formed the Chinese community in Barkerville.
Upon arriving in Barkerville, we found we had walked into a living museum from the gold rush era. Our first sighting was a stagecoach coming down the road. A town tour had just started at the Visitor Center. Interpreters were depicting the characters that came in search of gold. They were acting out the history of what it was like to live in Barkerville during that era. There were over a hundred heritage buildings.
At the Williams Creek School the teacher was giving children lessons on proper etiquette in a one-room schoolhouse. At the 1904 Wendle House, Mrs. Wendle was cooking a breakfast of beefsteak and potatoes and stewing some rhubarb on a wood stove.
The Barkerville Hotel, one of the original and oldest buildings in Barkerville, is now a display hotel dedicated to people who had lived there, including the Barker family and some of the founders of the Cariboo. There were many restaurants and a bakery that had the most delicious cinnamon buns.
We had the opportunity to see a live theater show at the Theatre Royal. It was a Gold Rush Revue titled “Diller’s Luck,” a musical drama telling the story of a man named Diller and his four partners who found gold. The cast was great. Later, we enjoyed an excellent dinner served at the Lung Duck Tong Restaurant in Chinatown.
We were to spend the night in an authentic gold rush hotel on Main Street, the St. George Hotel Bed & Breakfast. Across the street from the St. George Hotel is the oldest operating Masonic Hall Lodge. It was built in 1869 and still holds monthly meetings. The St. George is a seven-room hotel with an 1890’s charm. We stayed in the honeymoon suite, which was furnished with a queen-size bed, custom-made to duplicate the furniture of that period. Within the room were a small window and a modern bathroom. Four of the St. George’s rooms had bathrooms in the hall. A scrumptious breakfast was cooked on a late 1800s stove, which was fueled by propane.
Wells, B.C., Canada
Near historic Barkerville is the charming village of Wells, once a company town for the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine. Bill Horne and his wife, Claire Kujundzic, converted the former Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Wells into the Amazing Space Studio for their original art. Bill Horne started our walking tour at the Good Eats Gallery, a wooden-framed flatiron building.
The gallery, owned by artist Chris Harris, is full of Cariboo artwork, cards, magnets, books, shirts, and photography. A print by Claire, entitled “A Special Delivery” (the Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run), caught our eye. Once a year, mail is still carried by dog sled 55 miles from Quesnel to Barkerville and Wells in a historic three-day re-enactment in sub-zero conditions. The Barkerville post office was in existence as a postal depot in 1865 and established as a federal post office in 1872. It still exists today, making it the seventh oldest post office in British Columbia.
We continued our art walk to the Ting Yuen Art Rush Gallery. This gallery was amazing with its fine art, a jewelry collection, and designer handbags by artisans from British Columbia. Beck’s Pottery displayed a great collection of pottery and paintings by Cariboo artists. The Marie Nagel Gallery is located in the Old Anglican Church building and features original acrylic paintings by Marie as well as art works by other area artists.
We stayed overnight at the Wells Hotel, a heritage country inn. Our cozy guest room had a lovely interior with original art. There were mining artifacts and photographs of 1930s Wells in the lounge. Following an excellent dining experience at the Bear’s Paw Café in Wells, we attended a concert at the Sunset Theatre. Every summer the Sunset Theatre offers independent contemporary drama and music featuring some of the country’s top
Performers. That night we heard Ross Douglas, a songwriter, showman, and all-round entertainer singing many of the tunes inspired by this area.
Bowron Lake
Bowron Lake is world famous for its amazing wilderness canoe circuit. After breakfast at Bear River Mercantile, we were ready to paddle on Bowron Lake. With over 27 years of outdoor and wilderness experience, Dave Jorgenson was our guide. Before we started our canoeing, we were given instructions on how to paddle, what to do if we encountered a bear, and how to stash garbage in metal containers. We put on lifejackets and paddled a short distance up he Bowron River before heading south across Bowron Lake.
The first half of the outbound trip took us past an ancient native village site, once populated with prosperous salmon traders, but subsequently destroyed by disease. As we rounded a bend on the four-mile lake, the interior of the Bowron chain was revealed. The Cariboo Mountains were spectacular! Rather than paddling up to and exploring the intricately channeled Bowron Marsh, we stopped at a tiny gravel beach for a snack and tea, and to stretch our legs and contemplate our view of the Bowron wilderness.
On the way back home, we harnessed the wind with a couple of poles and a groundsheet modified to act as a sail. With the boats strapped together, we sailed down the lake at a leisurely pace. Dave and Geoff kept us on an even course as we had lunch on the Lake. It was an experience we shall never forget.
The following day we left Wells and continued our journey to Tyee Lake. A sign read: “Gold Rush Circle Tour at Matthew Valley.” This turned out to be the original trail that Americans from San Francisco took in 1858. They had walked over the mountain called Yanks Peak. Once an old foot-and wagon trail, it is now a drivable
road. People were actually mining gold on this road. There is no public access because of the dangerous operating equipment and the potential for theft. We continued driving on the main road until we came to Ghost Lake Valley.
The Cariboo Mountains were in the background as well as a beautiful mixture of trees. Geoff took us on a side trip to Cariboo Mountains Park, a campsite close to the main road. Here we saw a sample of one of many campsites in the region. This campsite had space for five campers. There were picnic tables, an outhouse, and a
Trail down to the lake where you can see mountain ranges with glaciers. As we were leaving the Ghost Lake Valley, we came across a young black bear heading across the road. A short time later, an enormous moose was sighted. Deer, squirrels, rabbits, and a variety of birds were also seen on the trail.
Eventually we reached the Tyee Lake Resort and Spa located in the wilderness of south central British Columbia with superb views of the lake. It was just off the beaten path surrounded by fir and pine forest, some open-range land and wildlife. In our guestroom we enjoyed a panoramic view of Tyee Lake from a wide balcony. Outside we could hear the loons cry.
The Tyee Lake Resort is situated on 14 acres along more than 900 feet of lakefront. Across from the resort there are a few homes and summer cabins. We decided to take a motorboat around the lake, stopping at a shallow bottom where we had the opportunity to view blue heron, sand hill cranes, and a number of freshwater
fish. We had dinner at the Osprey Restaurant, which had a superb menu of local specialties and wines. Again, we had discovered something special and did not want to leave.
The following morning we traveled to the Sandman Hotel in Quesnel for our overnight before we re-boarded the Rocky Mountaineer to continue our journey on the Fraser Discovery Route to Jasper, Alberta.
New CPR