In 1865 gold was discovered in the Williams Creek area of Cariboo.The gold rush in California was spent and many of the those miners heard of the discovery up north and headed that way. It is a beautiful area with all of the lakes, streams and wildlife. However, it is also very unforgiving. We heard that this area had 22 ft of snow this past winter. But one can't but help be romanticized by this place. We fell in love with it ourselves as the ones who came before us did. A town was soon built on Williams Creek named Barkerville after the man who discovered the gold in this area. We arrived in the late afternoon and soon went looking for a place to stay for the night. We went 2km back down the road to a town called Wells and spent the evening reading about this area. We got to the Barkerville townsite early after spending much time in the historic cemetery. This area also has the Bowron Lakes chain about 28 km from Barkerville. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go there and paddle the lakes. (That's the next trip)! But, we did find the gravesite of the people the Bowron's were named after. John and Emily Bowron. Emily is buried there alongside a few of her children. John remarried and retired in Victoria and is buried there.
We got to the town before the crowds arrived. It is a truly incredible place if you take the time to discover all of it's riches. We spent 3 hours there but could have stayed many days to discover all this old restored gold town has to offer. We found out later that there was another town up Williams Creek by the name of Richfield where the Courthouse was. We will definitely go back to explore more.
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