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The Trail of 1858: British Columbia’s Gold Rush Past
Mark Forsythe and Greg Dickson of CBC Radio's BC Almanac build books like folks in Saskatchewan used to raise their barns. It's a community affair and everyone is invited to pitch in.
To recognize the province's 150th anniversary as a modern political state, former Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo, herself a history enthusiast, has provided the foreword for their latest illustrated omnibus, The Trail of 1858: British Columbia's Gold Rush Past (Harbour $26.95), with contributions from dozens of experts and so-called ordinary citizens.
There were indeed strange things done in the midnight sun, and in the Cariboo gold rush. Even though John "Cariboo"; Cameron had helped establish the first cemetery for Barkerville, he offered $12 per day and a bonus of $2,000 (approximately $33,000 today) to any man who would help carry his deceased wife Sophia's coffin from Williams Creek to Victoria.
The blizzard-ridden, 36-day ordeal enabled Cameron to temporarily bury his beloved in Victoria. After amassing his fortune at Cameronton in the Cariboo, he returned to Victoria with $300,000 worth of gold ($7.5 million today) and took Sophia's body by ship, around South America, to be buried in her hometown of Glengarry, Ontario, thereby honouring her dying request.
Hurdy-Gurdy Girls. The Old Douglas Trail. The arrival of the Commodore, bringing black residents from California. The Chilcotin War. Cataline, the Cariboo's best-known packer. Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie. Those infamous camels, imported but never used. The paternalistic autocrat James Douglas. Stagecoach driver Stephen Tingley. Joseph Trutch, who constructed the first Alexandra suspension bridge in 1863. Herman Otto Bowe and the Alkali Lake ranch.
It's all packed into one mother-lode. Some of the history nuggets uncovered include a photo of Nam Sing, the first Chinese miner in the Cariboo, the peacemaking Chief Spintlum of the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), the 'miner's angel, Irishwoman Nellie Cashman, a lifelong prospector and spinster who travelled by dogsled north of the Arctic Circle, as well as Richard Wright's introduction to the 'poet/scout' Jack Crawford.
It turns out that Scotsman James Anderson, often described as the Robert Service of the Cariboo Gold Rush, had some competition from another stage performer, Jack Crawford, a long-haired U.S. army scout who was a theatrical partner of Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.
After Buffalo Bill drunkenly shot Crawford during one of their shows, Crawford took his own Wild West show north to Barkerville and Victoria. In 2004, Richard Wright and Amy Newman revived Crawford's reputation with a stage show called Campfire Tales of Captain Jack Crawford at Barkerville's Theatre Royal.
Statistically, it was easier to find gold than a non-Aboriginal wife. The two "brides' ships"; sent from England in 1862-63 did little to adjust the gender imbalance. Jean Barman's contributions include a short essay on the shortage of European-born women in the Cariboo gold fields.
"I never saw diggers so desirous of marrying as those of British Columbia,"; commented one observer.
Given that few miners could afford to send money to bring over an English girl or a Scotch lassie, they invariably appraised potential Aboriginal partners in terms of White notions of beauty and dress. Barman has retrieved some stanzas from "The Maid of Lillooet,"; written in 1862, to make her point.
Her elastic bust no stays
confined,
Her raven tresses flowed
free as wind;
Whilst her waist, her
neck and her ankles small
Were encircled by bandlets,
beadwrought all.
Her head as the wild deer's,
erect and proud,
To superior beauty never
owed;
Like the diamond sparkling
in the night,
Her glistening black eyes
beamed with light...
Net proceeds from the sale of The Trail of 1858 are being directed to the British Columbia Historical Federation.
1-55017-424-X
[BCBW 2008] "History" "Gold Rush"
To recognize the province's 150th anniversary as a modern political state, former Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo, herself a history enthusiast, has provided the foreword for their latest illustrated omnibus, The Trail of 1858: British Columbia's Gold Rush Past (Harbour $26.95), with contributions from dozens of experts and so-called ordinary citizens.
There were indeed strange things done in the midnight sun, and in the Cariboo gold rush. Even though John "Cariboo"; Cameron had helped establish the first cemetery for Barkerville, he offered $12 per day and a bonus of $2,000 (approximately $33,000 today) to any man who would help carry his deceased wife Sophia's coffin from Williams Creek to Victoria.
The blizzard-ridden, 36-day ordeal enabled Cameron to temporarily bury his beloved in Victoria. After amassing his fortune at Cameronton in the Cariboo, he returned to Victoria with $300,000 worth of gold ($7.5 million today) and took Sophia's body by ship, around South America, to be buried in her hometown of Glengarry, Ontario, thereby honouring her dying request.
Hurdy-Gurdy Girls. The Old Douglas Trail. The arrival of the Commodore, bringing black residents from California. The Chilcotin War. Cataline, the Cariboo's best-known packer. Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie. Those infamous camels, imported but never used. The paternalistic autocrat James Douglas. Stagecoach driver Stephen Tingley. Joseph Trutch, who constructed the first Alexandra suspension bridge in 1863. Herman Otto Bowe and the Alkali Lake ranch.
It's all packed into one mother-lode. Some of the history nuggets uncovered include a photo of Nam Sing, the first Chinese miner in the Cariboo, the peacemaking Chief Spintlum of the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), the 'miner's angel, Irishwoman Nellie Cashman, a lifelong prospector and spinster who travelled by dogsled north of the Arctic Circle, as well as Richard Wright's introduction to the 'poet/scout' Jack Crawford.
It turns out that Scotsman James Anderson, often described as the Robert Service of the Cariboo Gold Rush, had some competition from another stage performer, Jack Crawford, a long-haired U.S. army scout who was a theatrical partner of Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.
After Buffalo Bill drunkenly shot Crawford during one of their shows, Crawford took his own Wild West show north to Barkerville and Victoria. In 2004, Richard Wright and Amy Newman revived Crawford's reputation with a stage show called Campfire Tales of Captain Jack Crawford at Barkerville's Theatre Royal.
Statistically, it was easier to find gold than a non-Aboriginal wife. The two "brides' ships"; sent from England in 1862-63 did little to adjust the gender imbalance. Jean Barman's contributions include a short essay on the shortage of European-born women in the Cariboo gold fields.
"I never saw diggers so desirous of marrying as those of British Columbia,"; commented one observer.
Given that few miners could afford to send money to bring over an English girl or a Scotch lassie, they invariably appraised potential Aboriginal partners in terms of White notions of beauty and dress. Barman has retrieved some stanzas from "The Maid of Lillooet,"; written in 1862, to make her point.
Her elastic bust no stays
confined,
Her raven tresses flowed
free as wind;
Whilst her waist, her
neck and her ankles small
Were encircled by bandlets,
beadwrought all.
Her head as the wild deer's,
erect and proud,
To superior beauty never
owed;
Like the diamond sparkling
in the night,
Her glistening black eyes
beamed with light...
Net proceeds from the sale of The Trail of 1858 are being directed to the British Columbia Historical Federation.
1-55017-424-X
[BCBW 2008] "History" "Gold Rush"
Submitted on January 17, 2008 in By David.
