Description
Barkerville - located in central British Columbia, ninety kilometers east of Quesnel at the edge of the Cariboo Mountains - is a heritage district that includes a historic town situated in a narrow valley along the west bank of Williams Creek, and a cemetery north of the townsite. The district includes all surveyed lots, buildings, roads, and physical remnants of historic mining activity.
Heritage Value
The heritage values of Barkerville lie in its importance in the Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1860s and its impact on patterns of economic development and the resettlement of British Columbia, and in its role as the province's primary project for the 1958 British Columbia Centennial.
Originating in 1862 around English miner Billy Barker's strike, Barkerville is valued primarily as the most intact example of the types of communities and buildings that were constructed during the Cariboo Gold Rush. The British Columbia gold rushes, which started in 1858, are important to the history of BC because they brought gold seekers from around the world and directly led to the creation of the British colony which set the foundation for the future province (1871).
Once the Cariboo region's largest and most important town, it is significant that Barkerville survived and prospered in the extreme conditions of the natural environment high in a remote mountainous region of British Columbia's snowbelt. Although burnt to the ground in 1868, Barkerville was quickly rebuilt; this 'second town' - which included a large Chinatown - is a testament to the symbiotic nature of gravel, gold, water, and habitation in the Gold Rush boom town.
It is significant that Barkerville's wooden architecture, layout of streets, historic cemetery, and authentic mining equipment remained largely intact to illustrate the evolution of the community and gold mining up to 1958 when the Province began acquiring lots in the townsite and developing Barkerville as a historic park.
Barkerville's secondary heritage value resides in its importance as a British Columbia Centennial project, which has become the province's most noted museum town and one of its foremost heritage resources. Barkerville is an icon of the Cariboo Gold Rush and possesses significant social value as a place that effectively presents aspects of British Columbia's multi-cultural settlement and its economic and developmental history.
Source: BC Heritage Branch Properties Files
Character Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of Barkerville include: