….and, of course, steep grades, but not as steep as when we were coming out of Lillooet. (Thank you, Lord!)
There was also more pasture land here. There has been a lot of rain in British Columbia recently so rivers and lakes are high and everything is wonderfully green.
At our next RV park in Quesnel, Robert’s Roost, we parked right on the banks of Dragon Lake. This was our view from the motorhome. Very nice!
B.C. is definitely the ‘Land of Lakes.’ There are lakes everywhere, small ones and large ones. We really enjoy seeing them around every curve.
The next day we drove the car about 55 miles up to Barkerville. We visited here three years ago, enjoyed it so much that wanted to go there again on this trip.
Barkerville is an old historic town and the largest historical site in British Columbia.
Billy Barker discovered gold on Williams Creek in 1862 triggering a stampede of thousand of miners to the area over the next eight years.
Barkerville was a typical gold rush boomtown: a jumble of log and false fronted-shanties perched on stilts along a narrow, muddy street. Businesses of every description sprang into existence to provide for the needs of miners and profit from their earnings.
Barkerville burned to the ground in 1868 and was quickly rebuilt, but its glory days were beginning to fade. The Wells-Barkerville area experienced a second gold rush in the 1930’s and people still lived in Barkerville in 1958 when it became a heritage site.
A significant amount of gold is still being taken out of the area today.
There was originally a large China Town and Chinese population. They worked the mines as well as provided services for the miners. This is the entrance to the China Town part of Barkerville, which was separated from the rest of the town.
Currently there are approximately 125 heritage buildings in the streetscape of Barkerville. There are live stage shows, mining demonstrations, street actors, gold-panning, stage-coach rides and more. What ever, it was loads of fun!
There are numerous actors that spend their summers here performing in the theater, or on the street or in specific venues. They are very good. Most of their acts are based on things that actually happened in Barkerville. Others are a mix of fun and education.
We started out with a tour of the town with a couple actors as tour guides. They stay in character the entire time while telling you about people who once lived in Barkerville.
This was “Joseph Park, Barrister at Law.” He espoused various bits of free legal advice here and there when he wasn’t too inebriated to stand upright. In real life he DID have a problem with the bottle…it actually brought on his demise.
Actors and the people in the streets periodically would have to step back as a stage coach takes people down the middle of the street.
There is a working water-wheel…
…and a flume. These are used in a really fun show that demonstrates how the mining in Barkerville was done as well as some of the unscrupulous practices that took place during that time.
The two characters in this 30-45 minute skit are Miss Playfair (the mine owner) and Mr. Grimsley, a miner at the mine and all around foil for Miss Playfair.
These two are very accomplished actors and we really enjoyed them.
Miss Playfair tries to get Mr. Grimsley’s attention by pulling his ear.
Mr. Grimsley waxes eloquent about what a good deal it would be for everyone in the audience would buy a share in (what the two of them think is a dud of a mine) the super gold producing mine.
After swearing what a good deal it is, in the end, Miss Playfair finds that the mine really IS really producing gold and and suddenly decides she no longer wants to sell it.
(Don tried to get Mr. Grimsley to sell him his hat when we ran into him later on the street. Unfortunately for Don, Grimsley loves his hat!)
Musicians in front of the theater belt out an impromptu old-timey song.
There is a working post office in Barkerville where you can mail letters that will receive the Barkerville postmark. This is the postmistress behind the window. We sent our grandkids post cards from here.
There is also a working blacksmith shop.
Another one of our favorite performances here is Judge Begbie, "The Hanging Judge." (He sentenced many scoundrels to hang from the Hanging Tree in Lillooet!) He holds court here three or four times a day. This time it is a mile and a half up the road out of town at the Richland Courthouse.
We took a horse-drawn wagon ride up a narrow road to the Courthouse.
The Courthouse is the only thing left standing in Richland and is where the gold strike hit before Barkerville.
This is Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie and Mr. O’Reilly, his Court Clerk. They traveled together, mostly on foot on a 700 mile circuit, holding court in the different communities.
The judge was very strict and tolerated no funny business of any kind. He was also known to invalidate a jury’s verdict if it was obvious that they were totally wrong in their decision. All of this earned him the nick-name of the Hanging Judge.
This is the sign we found near the “Hanging Tree” when we were in Lillooet a few days ago. Judge Begbie sentenced a couple men to be hanged there.
Since Don is doing some performing himself these days, he is very interested in how actors like these perform their art. He was very impressed with how the Judge was portrayed and would have like to have watched him in more performances.
On the wagon ride back to Barkerville, we drove past a small waterfall right next to the road. We enjoy the many waterfalls we see in B.C.
The wagon ride took us back into town and dropped us off at the Theater…
…where we watched a drama about the the hard life of a single lady in Barkerville during the gold rush.
As our day was winding down, we wanted to see the Barkerville Cemetery. It was a half mile walk down a narrow path.
Because of all the rain, the cemetery was pretty overgrown. It was filled with huge wild bachelor buttons. They were growing everywhere.
Most of the deceased on the grave markers we saw, died in the 1860’s or 1870’s. The markers have been well taken care of for the most part. However, because of the mosquito population, we didn’t spend too much time there.
We did come across the marker of Joseph Park, Barrister of Law. He died in 1877 at 49 years of age…they told us he was drunk and fell in Williams Creek and drowned. This is the same “Joseph Park, Barrister at Law,” that was so well portrayed by one of the street actors.
We had arrived at Barkerville at 8:45 in the morning and now it was 6pm. It had been a great day and it was time for the drive back to camp.
Keeping an eye out for wildlife, we spotted this young bull moose, just growing a new set of antlers. He had been grazing on the bottom of the stream and just lifted his head, water still pouring out of his mouth.
A little further on we spotted this black bear looking for berries.
Our next stop is the little town of Houston just to spend the night. After that we will visit Terrace and Prince Rupert before meeting up with the Caravan.
On the way to Houston there are lots of beautiful lakes.
Darn those power lines! They have gotten in the way of a really nice picture once again!
This is the first peek at the Hazelton mountains. We will be seeing them up close tomorrow. They are near where we will meet up with the Caravan and then head into Alaska in about a week.
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