Barkerville

=**Billy Barker**= Billy Barker was born in England around 1819 or 1820. He and his father worked in shipping but when the railroad came in there wasn't any work left for them. Billy barker went to America to find work. In the 1850s Billy barker worked as a miner in the California gold rush but didn't do very well. By 1859 he decided to go north with other miners to British Columbia. He worked in Lillooet first and then moved north to Quesnel in 1861. On the Fraser River other miners found lots of gold. Lots of gold was being found at that time in Richfield but Billy Barker still had no luck. Billy Barker moved over to the area where Barkerville is now. His miner friends thought he was crazy and did not think he would find any gold. On August 17, 1862 Billy Barker struck gold! He and his company found a trail of gold underground. = = =**Barkerville**=

Barkerville is named after Billy Barker. Barkerville was turned into a place to get supplies and entertainment for the miners in the local areas. The population of Barkerville grew and merchants and trade people moved there to sell their goods to the miners. In 1866 the Cariboo Wagon road was finished. This road went from Yale to Barkerville. It made it easier to travel back and forth. On September 16, 1868, Barkerville was struck by fire. None were killed but lots of buildings were destroyed. Because of this fire they were able to organize the town in a better way. It also allowed them to make the road wider and add a boardwalk to go through the town because of the floods. In 1958 Barkerville became a heritige site.

"It is estimated that Barker’s mine produced the amazing total of 37 500 ounces of gold, worth about 40 million Canadian dollars at today’s gold prices!!"

=**Bibliography**= []

[]

[]

[]