There are many National Historic Sites and heritage towns across Canada, but few capture the imagination like Barkerville in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. It ranks among the most visited heritage attractions in the province, drawing well over sixty thousand visitors each summer. Part of its appeal is its setting near the lakes and forests of Bowron Lake Provincial Park, but much of it comes from its story. In the 1860s, thousands of hopeful miners poured into the Cariboo in search of gold, and the settlements that sprang up along the creeks traded that gold for food, tools, and supplies hauled in over rough wagon roads. For a brief period, this single precious metal was the main engine of the region's economy.
The town took shape in 1862, after a prospector named Billy Barker struck a rich seam of gold on Williams Creek. Almost overnight a rough cluster of cabins, shops, and saloons grew into one of the busiest towns in the colony. Its fortunes rose and fell with the diggings. A great fire swept through the crowded main street in 1868 and destroyed most of the buildings, yet the town was rebuilt within weeks. As the gold grew harder to find, however, miners drifted away, businesses closed, and by the early twentieth century Barkerville had dwindled to a near-empty shell of its former self.
