THIRTY-FOUR

What the Gold From the Cariboo Has
Done for the Province of British
Columbia

N the year 1858 alluvial or “placer”? gold was
found in British Columbia in the bars of the
Lower Fraser River.

Hardy and adventurous prospectors followed the
stream up—following the golden trail thus “‘struck’’
—and in 1860 and 1861, on the headwaters of the
river, they discovered the exceedingly rich ‘“‘plac-
ers” of the Cariboo District, which have produced
gold to a value exceeding $50,000,000.

The news of these rich finds travelled abroad and
brought about a rush of gold seekers from the then
failing goldfields of California, and from almost
every part of the world. From this time practically
dates the opening up and settlement of British
Columbia.

Within the next ten years Cariboo produced
about $33,000,000 worth of placer gold, the great-
est production in any one year being in 1863, and
amounting to about $4,000,000. All of this gold
was obtained with pick and shovel methods, then
only available.

A continued falling-off in the production of
placer gold might have been expected about the
year 1900, had it not been that machinery and
water power were beginning to be substituted for
the laborious methods of the early miner, a change
rendered possible by the improvement in transpor-
tation facilities.

Such, briefly, is the history of placer gold in this
Province; that it is only the beginning of such,
the improved methods of mining, and the new dis-
tricts each year becoming accessible, leaves little
reason for doubt.