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The Pike's Peak gold rush was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history.
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Greece, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, the United States, and Canada while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
British Columbia gold rushes were important episodes in the history and settlement of European, Canadian and Chinese peoples in western Canada.
Yale-Lillooet was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada.
The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly River, and on Keithley Creek and Antler Creek in 1860. The actual rush did not begin until 1861, when these discoveries were widely publicized. By 1865, following the strikes along Williams Creek, the rush was in full swing.
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton. The rush overtook the region around the discovery and was centered on the Fraser Canyon from around Hope and Yale to Pavilion and Fountain, just north of Lillooet.
Emory Creek Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located on the west side of the Fraser River just south of the town of Yale. It commemorates the location of a large boomtown, variously known as Emory, Emory Bar or Emory City, that first rose during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush but became a major construction town during the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s.
Emory Creek in 1858 was a tent and shack camp, established by miners in search of gold. When it became evident that the gold was not available in the amounts estimated, the miners started moving north on the Fraser River. A few Chinese remained in the area. The area came into the hands of a man named Walker, who felt Emory Creek would become the head of riverboat navigation on the Fraser. Eventually, he sold the land to the Oppenheimer Brothers in early 1879. In the fall of 1879, Emory was chosen by the C.P.R. as the western terminus. In a short time it became Emory Creek. The town consisted of thirteen streets with its own newspaper, various shops, a brewery, nine saloons and a sawmill. When Yale was made the terminus, Emory was all but abandoned by 1885, with the completion of the railway. Today, it is an easily accessible treed campground with paved roads and flush outhouses.
Coalmont was a tiny mining town, 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Princeton, British Columbia, Canada, on the north bank of the Tulameen River. The population of Coalmont is roughly 100 full-time residents. It is near the community of Tulameen and Otter Lake and the Coldwater Junction of the Coquihalla Highway. The town was established in 1912 to serve as a supply point to the neighbouring coal mine at Blakeburn.
The Okanagan Trail was an inland route to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush from the Lower Columbia region of the Washington and Oregon Territories in 1858–1859. The route was essentially the same as that used by the Hudson's Bay Company fur brigades, following the Columbia River to the confluence of the Okanogan River, and then up that river's watercourse via Osoyoos, Skaha (Dog) and Okanagan lakes, then using a pass via Monte Creek to Fort Kamloops, at the confluence of the North and South Thompson rivers. From there, the route went west down the Thompson River either to the lower gold-bearing bars of the Fraser River between what is now Lytton, British Columbia and Yale, British Columbia, or via Hat Creek and Marble Canyon to the upper Fraser goldfields around present-day Lillooet, British Columbia. A shorter branch-route to the lower Thompson and lower Fraser Canyon diverged from the main route at the confluence of the Similkameen River and the Okanogan. Cayoosh and The Fountains are today's Lillooet, British Columbia and environs.
Tulameen, originally known as Otter Flat, is a small community in British Columbia, Canada, about 26 kilometres northwest of the town of Princeton on the Crowsnest Highway, and about 185 kilometres northeast from the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Located at the south end of Otter Lake and just north of the Tulameen River, it is on the lee side of the Canadian Cascades mountain range and enjoys a slightly semi-arid climate, sheltered from the heavy rains west of that range.
The Rock Creek Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Boundary Country region of the Colony of British Columbia. The rush was touched off in 1859 when two US soldiers were driven across the border to escape pursuing Indians and chanced on gold only three miles into British territory, on the banks of the Kettle River where it is met by Rock Creek, and both streams turn east to where in times since developed the city of Grand Forks. The first claim was filed by an Adam Beam in 1860, and the rush was on, composed mostly of Americans and some Chinese, all of whom had come overland from other workings, either at Colville or Oregon or all the way from California.
The Big Bend Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Big Bend Country of the Colony of British Columbia in the mid-1860s.
The Similkameen Country, also referred to as the Similkameen Valley or Similkameen District, but generally referred to simply as The Similkameen or more archaically, Similkameen, is a region roughly coinciding with the basin of the river of the same name in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. The term "Similkameen District" also refers to the Similkameen Mining District, a defunct government administrative district, which geographically encompasses the same area, and in more casual terms may also refer to the Similkameen electoral district, which was combined with the Grand Forks-Greenwood riding by the time of the 1966 election. The Similkameen Country has deep historical connections to the Boundary Country and the two are sometimes considered one region, partly as a result of the name of the electoral district. It is also sometimes classed as being part of the Okanagan region, which results from shared regional district and other administrative boundaries and names. The term "Similkameen District" may also historically refer to the Similkameen Division Yale Land District, which also includes Osoyoos and the Boundary Country to Osoyoos' east.
The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada, in the Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush did not begin until late in 1869 with the discovery at Vital Creek. There were several routes to the goldfields: two were from Fort St. James, one of which was a water route through the Stuart and Tachie Rivers to Trembleur Lake to Takla Lake and the other was overland, called the Baldy Mountain route. A third route came in overland from Hazelton on the Skeena River and a fourth route used the Fraser River and crossed over the Giscome Portage to Summit Lake, through McLeod Lake, and up the Finlay River to the Omineca River.
Bralorne is a historic Canadian gold mining community in the Bridge River District of British Columbia, some 130 km on dirt roads west of the town of Lillooet.
Blackfoot was a mining camp located on a flat area on the north side of a bend in the Similkameen River, established in the Similkameen Gold Rush of the 1850s. The camp was founded by white miners and was later taken over by Chinese miners after the other miners moved on to richer diggings.
Granite Creek is a creek and townsite in British Columbia located in the Similkameen region. Granite Creek flows north into the Tulameen River and joins that river approximately one and a half miles to the east of Coalmont, British Columbia. It is assumed Granite Creek yielded more than $500,000 in placer gold since its discovery. Gold nuggets worth $50 in value were not unusual in the early years. The creek was mined by Europeans and Chinese. Granite Creek was hydraulicked near its mouth in the 1890s.
"Granite City" is the informal name for the mining settlement located near Granite Creek. Established during the 1885 gold rush, Granite Creek townsite is now a ghost town in the Similkameen region of British Columbia, Canada.
Collins Gulch is a creek in the Similkameen region of British Columbia. Collins Gulch is a stream which flows into the Tulameen River from the south side. The creek is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of the village of Tulameen, British Columbia. Collins Gulch was discovered in 1885. It was mined by both Europeans and Chinese for gold. Early mining efforts were successful although diggings were exhausted quite rapidly.
Gold Trails and Ghost Towns is a Canadian historical documentary show, created and produced by television station CHBC-TV in Kelowna, British Columbia for Canadian syndication and hosted by Mike Roberts with historian/storyteller Bill Barlee. The show was filmed in a studio which resembled an old trapper's cabin. Mike and Bill discussed prospectors and the history of British Columbia around 1900.
References
- Encyclopedia of Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of British Columbia: Volume 2, The Similkameen, Boundary and Okanagan, T.W. Paterson, Sunfire Publications, Langley B.C. (1981) ISBN 0-88983-027-4