Among the architectural showpieces is the Barkerville Hotel, an elaborate Victorian building with a Wild West-style, second-storey balcony. Down the street is the beautiful Masonic Lodge, which reads in front, but actually dates to — the original building was destroyed by fire, so it was rebuilt.
Work on St. It has the real feel of a pioneer building — the large wooden structure was never painted. Built in the s, it was run by the Chinese Freemasons as a place where Chinese miners could socialize, eat and worship. The Chee Kung Tong building is also unpainted. Coleman points out that, on the side, rags are stuffed into the cracks in the exterior walls as insulation. The rawness of many buildings is incredible. Many are made of logs and have the weathered patina of an abandoned building that you might stumble across in the wilderness.
Others have additions with several types of siding — you can literally see where a new addition was tacked on. There are buildings and attractions listed in the Barkerville guide, including in the town proper. Many of the buildings feature items found in the townsite, such as old bottles, old rifles and paraphernalia for smoking opium. Kibbee, the wife of a trapper. Many came to Barkerville for a season but were so captivated that they wound up staying and living in Wells, a cool little town nearby that had its own gold rush in the s.
Dave Brown is a perfect example. He initially came to the area as a tree-planter, then got some work building and repairing log structures. But he really found his forte playing Mr. Grimsby, a slightly goofy prospector who works for Miss Playfair, a straitlaced Englishwoman trying to raise money for a mine.
Andrew Hamilton has been interpreting characters at Barkerville on and off since His first gig was playing Thomas Pattullo, the uncle of former B. But he died penniless in Victoria in Maybe not. But years after he made his great strike on Williams Creek, Billy Barker remains a household name in B. Is there more to this story?
Email vantips postmedia. Unfortunately, the town of Bakerville was almost completely destroyed by fire in , leaving only four buildings intact. A second Barkerville was immediately constructed on the ruins of the first town.
While the community continued to survive based on periodic mining excitement and the maintenance of government offices, Barkerville started to decline and unused houses fell into disrepair or were demolished. The provincial government created Barkerville Historic Provincial Park and reconstructed the town to mirror its appearance during the period.
This period was chosen because the Cariboo gold fields and Great Wagon Road to Barkerville fostered economic and political development in British Colombia. Key elements that contribute to the heritage character of the site include: - its location in eastern British Colombia, at the heart of the historic mining district; - its setting on the banks of Williams Creek; - the planned, design, and layout of the buildings; - the buildings in their original form, construction and materials; - the raised wooden boardwalk; - the integrity of any surviving or as yet unidentified archaeological remains relating to the Barkerville and the reconstruction, which may be found within the site in their original placement and extent; - its relationship with the Chee Kung Tong National Historic Site of Canada and the Cariboo Wagon Road National Historic Event of Canada; - the viewscapes across Williams Creek.
Government of Canada. Historic Sites and Monuments Act. National Historic Site of Canada. 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…. Large cattle ranches were founded in the area surrounding the town. Barkerville boasted a large Chinese community who were important to the economy of the town. The Kwong Lee Company was a general store selling groceries, clothing and other items.
They also built dormitories for transient miners and a nursing home for the elderly. A great fire ripped through the town on 16 September , destroying many of the wooden buildings. Life went on in Barkerville and ninety buildings were rebuilt in six weeks.
The schoolhouse reopened in , however by the turn of the century, the gold rush had ended and people began to leave. There was a brief revival in the s when the price of gold went up during the Great Depression but that was short lived. Barkerville soon became a ghost town with just a very small population remaining. This is what it looked like in the s. The government of British Columbia made the decision to buy out the remaining residents in They restored the town to look as it had been in its heyday.
It is now operated as a tourist attraction called the Barkerville Historic Town and Park. The Gold Rush Trail hiking route is also popular among tourists. The cemetery in Barkerville remains as it was. Some of the residents that left in were moved to New Barkerville, a purpose-built village on the peak of the Reduction Road Hill, in the forest one kilometre from Barkerville.
Today, some of those homes accommodate tourists who come to the area to visit the town they abandoned. A wagon in Barkerville in the mid s.
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