The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-03
BRITISH COLUMBIA GOLD.
History OF the Great Discoveries-Mill-
ions of the yellow Dust.
Julian Ralph in Harner's Magazine.

Julian Ralph in Harpers Magazine
1t may almost be said that the history
of gold-mining there is the history of
British Columbia. Victoria the capital,
was Hudson Bay post established in
1915, and Vancouver, Queen Charlotte's
and the other islands, as we'll as the main
land, were of interest only to few white
men as parts of great fur-trading field
with small Indian population. The
first nugget of gold was found at what is
now called Gold harbor, on the west coast
OF the Queen Charlotte islands, by an In
dian woman, in 1851. A part of it, weigh
ing four or five ounces, was taken by the
Indians to Fort Simpson and sold. The
Hudson Bay Company, which has done
little in every line of business in its day,
sent brigantine to the spot, and found
quartz vein traceable eighty feet and
yielding high percentage of gold. Blast
ing was begun, and the vessel was loaded
with ore; but she was lost on the return
voyage. An American vessel, ashore at
Esquimault, near Victoria, was purchased,
renamed the Recovery, and sent to Gold
harbor with thirty miners, who worked
the vein until the vessel was loaded and
sent TO England. News of the mine trav-
eled, and in another year a small fleet of
vessels came up from Sal Francisco; but
the supply was seen to be very limited,
and after $4,000 in all had been taken out,
the field was abandoned.
In 1855 gold was found by Hudson
Bay Company's employee at Fort Colville,
now In Washington, near the boundary.
Some Thompson river, b. c., Indians
who went to Walla Walla spread a report
there that gold like that discovered at Col
vile was to be found in the valley of the
Thompson. \ party of Canadians and
half breeds went to the region referred
to, and found placers nine miles
above the mouth of the river. BY 1858
the news and the authorization of it
stirred the miners of California, and an as
tonishlng invasion of the virgin province
began. 1t is said that in the spring of
lS5S more than 10000 persons reached Vic
toria from San Francisco by sea, distend-
ing the little fur trading post of few
hundred inhabitants into what would
even now be called a considerable city;
a city of canvas, however. simultaneously
third as many miners made their
way TO the new province on land. But the
land was covered with mountains and
dense forests, the only route to its interior
for them was the violent, almost boiling,
Fraser river, and there was nothing on
which the lives of this horde of men could
be sustained. BY the end of the year out
OF nearly 5000 adventures only tenth
part remained. Those who did stay
worked the river bars of the lower Fraser
until in five months they had shipped
from Victoria more than half million
dollars worth of gold. From historical
point of view it is peculiar coincidence
that in 1859 when the attention of the
world was thus first attracted to this
new country, the charter of the Hudson
Bay Company expired, and the territory
passed from its control to become like any
other crown colony.
In 1860 the gold miners, seeking the
source of the flour" gold they found in
such abundance in the bed of the river,
pursued their search into the heart and
almost the center of that torbidding and
unbroken territory. The Quesnel river be-
came the seat OF their operations. Two
years later came another extraordinary inn
migration. This was not surprising. for l.
500 miners had in one year jiSilJ taken
out 81. 900, 600 in gold dust from certain
creeks in what is called the Cariboo dis
trict, and one can imagine (if one does not
Temember) what fabulous tales were based
upon this fact. The second stampede was
of persons from all over the world, but
chiefly from England, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand. After that there
were new finds" almost every year, and
the miners worked gradually northward
until about 1874, they had travelled
through the province, IN al one end and
out at the other, and were working the
tributaries of the Yukon river in the
north, beyond the Goth parallel Mr.
Dawson estimates that the total yield of
gold between ISIS and lSSS was S54 los
60i; the average number of miners en-
ploved each year was 2,775, and the aver
age earnings per man per year was S622