We woke up in Quesnel at home of my very good friend of over 50 years, Bev. We were able to enjoy and nice breakfast before we climbed into Bev’s car (the 3 of will not fit in ours 🙂 )and head out for the just over hour long drive out to Barkerville. I have heard of Barkerville for most of my life but I have never been here before. Stu came with his family as a teen, but doesn’t remember much about it.
Barkerville is a ghost town in the Cariboo . It was named after “William (Billy) Barker” who made his way to the Cariboo from Cambridgeshire, England via San Francisco in 1861. News of the discovery of gold in the Cariboo travelled to San Francisco. The photos below show an actor playing Billy Barker describing how he came to the Cariboo, how he found his big strike of gold. How he gave away a lot of his gold, spent it on alcohol and tobacco. He eventually got cancer in his jaw and eventually died at the age of 77. Quite a ripe old age considering the life style that he had.
We stroll through the town that burned completely to the ground in 1868 in just over an hour.
It sounds like it was quite a wild place during the gold rush. At its peak it had 2,000 inhabitants. 75 were women and 45 were children That leaves 1,880 men. Quite a lopsided demographic. It boggles the mind as we look around the town and wonder how all of the possessions and people made the trek to this remote location.
Here are some of the interiors of some of the buildings.
This is the iconic church in Barkerville. It still has services and is available for weddings.
We take in variety show in the “Theatre Royal”. There are five very talented performers putting on a typical variety show of the 1800’s. These are classically trained singers who play a variety of instruments. Violin, Bass Viola, Piano as well as a number of others. They on 3 different shows each day.
Today there are not too many people in the town today. There are at least 3 school groups, but very few other than that. We expect that once the schools are out for the summer the attendance will increase dramatically.
We spend some time watching the Blacksmith. He is busy making drink holders since so many were sold for Father’s Day.
We have a number of laundry photos from various parts of the world. Stu was able to take a few here to add to the collection. These are from the Chinatown area of Barkerville. Chinese laundries.
Here is a huge Snooker table that somehow made the journey to Barkerville in the 1860’s.
I love this image.
We had a nice lunch and wandered around the town a bit longer before heading back to the car for the drive home. Bev lived in the little town of Wells 30 some years ago and actually worked in Barkerville at that time. She takes us for a little tour of the funky town of Wells.
This was an amazing day in the Cariboo!! Thanks Bev for being our tour guide and an amazing host!! We need to come back.