The Fraser River and Cariboo Gold Rushes

October 18, 2026

Long before anyone at UP8 picked up a stone, gold had already reshaped this province. Two rushes in particular, on the Fraser River and in the Cariboo, did much to create British Columbia as we know it.

Black-and-white photo of a horse-drawn wagon on the main street of Barkerville historic town
A horse-drawn wagon on the street at Barkerville Historic Town.
Photo: Cbone, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

1858: the Fraser River

The Canadian Encyclopedia records that gold was first found in the Thompson River by a member of the Shuswap (now Secwepemc) Nation in 1856. When news reached San Francisco in 1858, thousands of miners headed north. In 1858, around 30,000 gold seekers came to the banks of the Fraser River between Hope and just north of Lillooet, most of them from California. The richest finds of fine "flour" gold were made between Hope and Yale in the Fraser Canyon.

Pencil sketch of Hill's Bar on the Fraser River in 1862, showing trees and the riverbank
Hill's Bar on the Fraser River, sketched by Sarah Crease in 1862. Hill's Bar, near Yale, was a productive bar during the 1858 rush.
Photo: Sarah Crease 1862, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The rush had a heavy cost for the Nlaka'pamux and other Indigenous peoples whose lands and fisheries were overrun, and it led to the Fraser Canyon War of 1858. Fears that the influx of American miners would lead to annexation also led to the founding of the colony of British Columbia on 2 August 1858.

The 1860s: the Cariboo

Prospectors pushed north looking for the source of the Fraser's gold. On Williams Creek, Billy Barker and his crew struck rich gold on August 17, 1862, at a depth of 52 feet, and the town of Barkerville grew up around the find. Parks Canada notes that the Cariboo Wagon Road, built by the colony between 1862 and 1865, ran from Yale to Barkerville and greatly improved access to the gold fields.

Interior of the historic blacksmith shop at Barkerville, with an anvil, forge and tools
The blacksmith shop at Barkerville.
Photo: Ssarjola at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Barkerville burned almost completely in 1868 and was rebuilt right away. It was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924 and a Provincial Heritage Property in 1958. Today it is a living-history town with more than 125 heritage buildings, including Canada's oldest Chee Kung Tong building, a reminder that by the mid-1880s Chinese residents made up half of the Cariboo's population.

The Fraser Canyon and the Cariboo are the traditional territories of First Nations, including the Nlaka'pamux and Secwepemc peoples named in the history above. The gold rushes changed their lands and lives profoundly.

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