The Gold Rush

There matters stood until news leaked out in 1857 of the discovery of gold in sandbars on the Fraser River. The gold rush of 1849 to California had transformed that territory, only recently acquired by the US from Spain. Now it was BC's turn. The first newcomers to make it north to Victoria in the spring of 1858 were almost all experienced miners and merchants. As news spread, others came from farther away, including the US, Great Britain and China. Some estimates put the number at 30,000 in 1858 alone, followed by additional thousands over the next 6 years. Most men--and they were almost all men--left almost as soon as they came, for the difficulties of getting to the goldfields were enormous. New finds moved up the Fraser River north into the Cariboo, meaning that travel was never easy. By 1865 the early trails relying as much as possible on water gave way to the newly constructed Cariboo Wagon Road, which extended north to the boom town of Barkerville. The gold rush made it imperative that authority be regularized. The long time it took to communicate with Great Britain forced James Douglas to act largely on his own initiative to establish control over the goldfields. His actions were confirmed by Britain's decision to declare the mainland a separate colony of British Columbia on 2 Aug 1858, the name being selected personally by Queen Victoria. Douglas was given the additional responsibility of governing the mainland colony on condition that he sever his HBC ties. Great Britain sent out a contingent of Royal Engineers to construct basic infrastructure and, for strategic reasons, they selected New Westminster on the north bank of the Fraser River as the mainland colony's capital. Vancouver Island became wholly a British colony on 30 May 1859 when the HBC lease expired. In 1863 BC's present boundaries were essentially put in place when, following the discovery of gold in the far north, Britain asserted the mainland colony's sovereignty north to 60º and east to the 120th meridian.