STANLEY (Van Winkle)

T a point 45 miles east from the town of Quesnel on the Cariboo Road
q is the town of Stanley (Van Winkle). A combined hotel and store,

holding a justified reputation for its meals, forms the rendezvous for
its inhabitants. Today there are but few in the neighborhood, and but very
little evidence to indicate its past splendor. The hotels and dance halls with
their picturesque accessories are gone, and there is now but little to indicate
that they ever existed. Large rock piles lining the banks of Lightning
Creek for a distance of a mile and a half up from Stanley bear mute testi-
mony to an era now gone. In the early 60’s miners crossed the range from
Barkerville and dropped into what is now known as the Lightning Creek
Valley. They found the creek some two miles above Stanley to be rich and
shallow. After several years of work the shallow ground was exhausted and
the section almost emptied of inhabitants. The remaining few, however,
succeeded in sinking shafts through the loose gravels of the creek and finding
“nay” at a point about a mile above Stanley. During the 70’s the deep ground
above Stanley gave the section the reputation of being the second richest
section in the district. The section of Lightning Creek for two miles above
Stanley yielded over $8,000,000. When this section was worked out the
valley lay dormant until the 90’s, when the deep ground of Lightning Creek,
about a mile below Stanley, was exploited by English capital. This company
failed to secure sufficient gold to make the proposition successful. It is now
believed that this company did not succeed in finding the old channel of
Lightning, which had paid so well up-stream, and a new company has started
extensive drilling to locate the old channel, with good prospects of success.
Since the 90’s considerable prospecting has been done, and small hydraulic
mines have operated on the tributaries, and it is in this direction that any
further work will lie. Chisholm, Perkin’s Gulch and Amador Creeks still
hold the main portion of the gold which has rested beneath the glacial debris
for many centuries. Each of these various tributaries have been partially
prospected by local people, but until large capital can be interested to do
more extensive prospecting, their true value will probably be unknown.
Lightning Creek carries sufficient water to make a hydraulic mine an attrac-
tive proposition. Transportation costs from Quesnel are not excessive and
operating costs are within reason. To the people who can venture sufficient
capital to thoroughly investigate its possibilities, this section offers every
possibility of yielding a very handsome return.

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