CARIBOO AND HOBSON CREEK AREAS.

CARIBOO.

The bulk of the placer- and lode-gold production of the Cariboo has come from the
area around Wells, Barkerville, and Keithley Creek. The area described in the follow-
ing summary is about 30 miles long, extending from Willow River and upper Lightning
Creek south-eastward through to Cariboo River, and about 20 miles wide, from Quesnel
Forks north-eastward to Cunningham Creek. In this area are the two producing gold
mines of Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company, Limited, and Island Mountain Mines
Company, Limited, near Wells, and the former producing mine of Cariboo Hudson Gold
Mines, Limited, 18 miles south-east of Barkerville. It is a mountainous area, having
summits rising to elevations of 6,000 feet or more, lying in the transitional belt between
a range of higher and more rugged mountains to the east and a lower more subdued
plateau area to the west. The relief is only about 2,000 feet, but the extensive mantle
of drift and the vegetation obscure much of the bed-rock, so that natural exposures are
not abundant and prospecting is difficult.

ACCESSIBILITY.

The area is reached from Quesnel by motor-road, 59 miles to Wells; thence 21
additional miles to the Cariboo Hudson mine camp, whence a tractor-road leads across
the Snowshoe Plateau to Yanks Peak. Yanks Peak may also be reached by truck-road
from Keithley Creek. A motor-road runs from Williams Lake, 74 miles, into Keithley
Creek. Much of the area is readily reached from the existing main roads and those
into mine camps. A considerable number of trails ran through other sections but,
through disuse, have fallen into various stages of disrepair.

HISTORY.

The mining history of the Cariboo area began with the discovery of rich, gold-
placer deposits at Quesnel Forks, Keithley Creek, and Antler Creek in 1860, and on
Williams and Lightning Creeks in 1861. Once the discovery of these four most im-
portant creeks was made, thousands of miners made their way into the country over
the trail from Quesnel Forks up Keithley Creek and across the summit to Antler Creek;
thence through to Barkerville and Stanley on Williams and Lightning Creeks. They
prospected and worked the placer-ground, and in the course of their prospecting for
placer found many gold-bearing quartz veins.

Between 1875 and 1895 many gold-quartz veins were found and staked, and mining
; companies were formed to work them. Mills were erected to treat the ore from several
; properties, including a 4-stamp mill at Richfield on Williams Creek, a 10-stamp mill on
| Island Mountain near Jack of Clubs Lake, a Government reduction plant treating
custom ore, and an arrastra on Lightning Creek treating ore from Burns Mountain.
In the next few years interest waned, and for three decades little was done on gold-
quartz veins of the Cariboo. In the preceding period several veins had been explored
by underground workings, but no profitable mine had been developed.

The Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company, Limited, was organized in 1927 to
explore the veins on Cow Mountain, south-east of Jack of Clubs Lake. The favourable
development of this mine, together with the increased price of gold, brought a renewal

| of interest in the possibilities of the area, resulting in much prospecting and develop-
:

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