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Barkerville’s main street by Mike from Vancouver –

Top Ten Amazing Facts about Barkerville, British Columbia

Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada. It is preserved as a historic town. The town is located at the Western edge of the Cariboo Moutain and on the North Slope of the Cariboo Plateau in British Columbia.

Barkerville is named after Bill Barker also known as William Barker, an English prospector who was famous for being one of the first to find a large about of gold in 1861  the Cariboo of British Columbia. William was the founder of the town though he was from Cambridgeshire, England. Following are the top ten amazing facts about Barkerville.

1. Barkerville was built up almost overnight

Barkerville by Kickstart70 –

It is quite hyperbolic to create a town in just 12 hours of the night or by word of mouth. To be frank not even an exquisite dog kennel can be built with that duration. As the reports speculate, Barkerville was built-in just overnight when William Barker claimed that he had found huge piles of Gold making him the richest person.

With his claim that William would eventually yield 37, 500 ounces equivalent to 1, 065 kg of gold, people started moving to the town to try their luck on the gold deposits. The Chinese were one of the people who moved to the town.

2. William Barker died a poor man

William Barker –

Even though he was lucky to get all that amount of gold amounting to 1,065 kg of gold, William died with nothing and was buried in a cemetery reserved for the poor. 

It is said that Billy Barker lent huge sums of money at low-interest rates to other gold prospectors, and squandered the other with his expensive lifestyle in hotels and saloons in Victoria and Barkerville. He, at last, was bankrupt and so he turned to find other new businesses in which he was not successful. 

3. Cariboo Wagon Road brought ease in transport to Barkerville

Bernard Express Barkerville by Charles Gentile –

Before the construction of the road, people hauled their supplies to Barkerville on the back of by Pack train(use of animals like horses, mules, donkeys, or ponies). Since goods were transported in small amounts due to the use of animals or by carrying goods on their backs, the price of goods increased almost daily.

When the Cariboo road was built, the number of goods transported to the town increased. The High prices of goods eventually eased as goods could be transported in large freights. The number of women coming to Barkerville also increased after the construction of Cariboo Wagon Road.

4. Barkerville was destroyed during the 1868 fire incident

Barkerville after the great fire by Richard Maynard-

ll structures were built on wood. On 16th November 1868, a fire broke out and spread out so fast through the wooden buildings. Rebuilding started immediately though and the pace was impressive. Within six weeks ninety buildings had been rebuilt, boardwalks improved, and the narrow and winding main street widened and straightened.

5. Barkerville School is no longer owned by Barkerville

By 1980, there were enough children in the Barkerville community to put up a structure in the name of a school. So, Barkerville School was built a had 13 pupils and one chalkboard. The school though aging was bought by Wells and is no longer within the school district.

The people in the region tried to fight for the school ut the ministry of education proposed that, the school belonged to Wells and all they could do was allocate capital funding.

6. Barkerville was affected by the Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that occurred between 1929 and 1939. The depression was due to a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Great Depression was the longest, deepest, and widest in the 20th century.

Barkerville was one of the places that were hit by the wave of the Great Depression around the 1930s. It caused massive unemployment and the price of gold skyrocketed. Barkerville declined to a small village as many inhabitants emigrated.

7. Barkerville Historic park was dissolved

In 1998, Barkerville Historic Park was dissolved into two properties; Barkerville Provincial Park and Barkerville Historic Park. Barkerville Provincial Park was converted from Order in Canada to Statue designation in 2000 and then later to Barkerville Historic Town and Park after its shares were sold to the Ministry of Tourism, Sports, and Art.

8. The Chinese descent was a growth factor for Barkerville

Barkerville Chinatown by Mike from Vancouver, Canada –

The Chinese migrated to Barkerville to get the gold deposits in the area. Some of them were lucky while others were not lucky to get the Gold. Some Chinese worked in the service and support sectors of the economy like grocery stores, restaurants, hotels and motels, tea rooms, and lounges. 

 The Kwong Lee Company of Victoria was set up. The company acquired wholesale licenses in Barkerville because it had warehouses and a network of subsidiaries in several gold mining towns. The company supplied rice, tea, cigars, matches, clothes, blankets, boots, and even analgesic and antispasmodic drugs.

9. Merchants set prices of products at will

In the world today the trend of inflation controls the price of goods and services. This was different in the ancient Barkerville then. Merchants increased prices to make themselves rich. Their stores had the only sources of food. At the height of the gold rush, the price of flour was $1.25 per pound and dried fruits a dollar per pound.

10. There are no inhabitants in the town currently

There are no more inhabitants in Barkerville. All those who lived in the area moved to other towns, either nearby or far. The government of Canada preserved the town as a historic site. Barkerville has become a relic of a bygone era where tourists come to feel the 19th-century atmosphere.

 Barkerville is now a historic park and town. Of course, many tourists visit the area, so you should book yourself a ticket to the town during the summers and experience the splendid old school structures in the region. Many activities like gold panning to get a taste of the gold rush.