Cariboo Road

The Project:

One of the fascinating things about postal history is that a single item can open up windows to interesting events, people or situations that occurred in the past.  Below is an item that was once in the care of Steve Walske and I am now its caretaker.  The good news about knowing who owned a cover before you is that they can help you figure out what is going on if they are willing to share their own research.  The rate information comes wholly from Steve's efforts.  This frees me to spend more time learning about some of the back story that I hope to put together here.

Last Updated: 12/18/18

Route:
Williams Creek was the site of much of the early successes in finding gold and settlements such as Marysville, Richfield and Barkerville sprang up to gain varying levels of importance.  Barkerville had a documented office for Barnard's Express early in the 1860's, so I'll generalize Williams Creek to having an origin at Barkerville.

This item likely followed this route:

• Barkerville (approx Jul 22)
• via Barnard's Express on the Cariboo Road 
• to Soda, Ashcroft, Lytton and Yale
• via Dietz and Nelson to New Westminster were it 'entered the mails' on July 26
• to Victoria - not sure how this happened - was it still Dietz and Nelson even though it entered the BC post office in New Westminster?  Or was there a different contract from this point?
• Victoria to San Francisco (July 31) via steamer
• likely overland to New York (Sep 6) (no directive via Panama)
• Cunard's Persia to Liverpool (Sep 16)

Usual stage time from Yale to Barkerville (approx 380 miles) was four days.  A special express (night driving, etc) set a record at 30 hours.

From the Aug 8, 1863 British Columbian published in New Westminster

An alternative was to transfer the mails to Dietz and Nelson at Lillooet.  They would then use steamers on Lake Harrison (and perhaps on the river as well?)  However, the below seems to indicate that there were two wagon trails that met up north of Lytton (probably near Ashcroft).  The advertisement shown here for a company offering services to carry goods extolled the virtues of the Lytton route.

The general rule of thumb is that land routes are normally faster than water routes.  This, of course, assumes the path of travel was developed to some level.  Although, this might not be entirely true in rugged areas such as those required for this trip.  Regardless, development of land routes to speed travel was important and one could easily go down the 'rabbit hole' looking for the history of route development in any part of the world during critical expansion periods - just as this gold rush was for the Cariboo region.

The map above is not entirely accurate, but I selected it because it is fairly clean and easy to work with.  I suspect I can find other maps that would more accurate depict both wagon roads (Douglas to Lilloet and Yale Cariboo Road).

Three hundred and eighty miles from Yale to Barkerville may not sound like much in today's world.  But, if you do a little looking into what the terrain in this area is like and consider the technologies of the time, traversing this area was no small task.


The Cariboo Road

Old Cariboo Road, picture from wikipedia

The Old Cariboo Road was created in response to the Cariboo Region gold rush in the 1860's.  And, if you know anything about North American history, you have to recognize that the discovery of gold fields was one of the quickest ways for an area to attract settlers and cause development of infrastructure - such as the Old Cariboo wagon road shown above.

Ad in the British Columbian (New Westminster) newspaper published Dec 12, 1866

Barnard's Express

Winter of 1863 - added sleighs for winter transport.  1864 4 horse 14 passenger stage added

The BX Ranch
Barnard's Express was successful in part because of his investment in and maintenance of his horse stock at this ranch. 

Dietz and Nelson
 sold their express company to Barnard in 1867.


Williams Creek and Surrounding Area
 The map below from "Great Mining Camps of Canada" [1] seems like it lends a bit more credence for accuracy with respect to where things are in the Williams Creek area.  Settlements essentially appeared as claims were staked.  Where claims clustered, services tended to follow.

from [1] - Locations of Cariboo Placer Gold Production

Barkerville 1863 from [1] in resources

One Legacy of Gold Rushes

Resources:
The Western Cover Society is currently housing many of the postal history references that help with items in this area during my period of interest.  

Walske, Steve, Stamp Shortages in the Cariboo Gold Country: Mail from Williams Creek via San Francisco, 1864-1868, US Philatelic Classics Society, The Chronicle, no. 218, vol 60, no 2, May 2008, pp 117-128


Walske, Steve, Postal Rates on Mail from British Columbia and Vancouver Island via the United States, 1858-1870, US Philatelic Classics Society, The Chronicle, no.212 ,vol 58,no 4, Nov 2006, pp 289-297
     - Some excellent work here and the rate tables below come from this article.

British Columbia and Vancouver Island Rate Tables on Western Cover Society webpage

Forster, Dale, Paid, Unpaid, Collect and Free Markings on BC and VI Covers, Postal History Society of Canada Journal, No 107, Sep 2001, pp 49-57.

Wellburn, Gerald E, The Stamps and Postal History of Colonial Vancouver Island and British Columbia: 1849-1871, (1987).
     - Since Wellburn's time, postal historians have been able to gain access to more primary sources with far less effort.  As a result, some of the details in this "coffee-table" book are incorrect.  Nonetheless, an enjoyable book to view.

British Columbia and Vancouver Island Covers on Western Cover Society webpage
     - I cannot tell if the Western Cover Society intends this to be a census or a sampling.  My suspicion is the latter, though this 'sampling' covers a good deal of ground.  I presume most were in the Walske collection.

The BC Gold Rush Press is a blog that has dedicated itself to the history of the gold rush in this area and could provide a person with all kinds of perspectives. It appears to be well done and was still active Jan 2018.

Downs, Art, Cariboo Gold Rush: the Stampede that Made BC, Heritage House, 1987
     - This book is focusing on making the story entertaining but does so with the integration of primary sources.  Looks like an interesting read that could allow me to accurately map the Cariboo road and other wagon trails in the early to mid 1860's.

[1] Brown and Ash, Great Mining Camps of Canada: the History and Geology of the Cariboo Goldfield, Barkerville and Wells, BC, Journal of the Geological Association of Canada, Vol 36, no 1 (2009).
     - Lots of detail, well researched.  The focus, of course, is on the geological side of things, but the accompanying historical information is also of use here.

Some interesting maps can be found at University of Victoria's Digital Collection.  Of note are carriage road maps (proposed in 1861).

Older version of the display page:

Project Status:
This post is actually a re-write with many additions and a second edit of a post on our farm blog that is located here.
It would be nice to flesh some of this out and perhaps create an interesting article for a journal.