The Gold Rush: Hiking Historic Trails

By Charles Hou, Governor-General’s Award Recipient

INTENDED GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT AREA

Grades 10 to 12 History, Geography, Language Arts, Mathematics, Environment, Phys. Ed

CONCEPTS

Learning about the Gold Rush; appreciating the perseverance and strength of these mining entrepreneurs; engagement of all the students’ senses.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

As a teacher with a passion for teaching Canadian history, I like to share my interest in history with my students and help them connect with events which have shaped the city, province and country in which they live. If I taught in the Maritimes I might take my students on a field trip to Louisbourg; in Quebec, they would explore places associated with the battle of 1759; in Ontario, they would visit the sites of the Rebellion of 1837; and in the prairies, they would explore sites associated with Louis Riel's 1869-70 and 1885 confrontations with Ottawa.

In British Columbia, the Gold Rush of 1858-65 provides a natural focus for a field trip. Barkerville, the centre of the gold rush and a provincial historic site, is a little too remote and the weather unsuitable at the time of year I would most like to take my students.

Luckily, an earlier route to the gold fields—the Harrison-Lillooet trail—provides the ideal area for exploration. Therefore, once a year, for the past twenty years, I have led groups of forty to eighty grade ten students on a six-day backpacking trip along a portion of this route.

The Harrison-Lillooet trail has one major advantage: its relative remoteness has largely protected it from urban development. Although logging and a BC Hydro access road have had an effect, much of the route is almost unchanged from the Gold Rush days when stagecoaches travelled back and forth between the north end of Harrison Lake, and the south end of Lillooet Lake.

Major personalities in BC’s history travelled through the area—men such as A.C. Anderson, Governor James Douglas, Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie, Cariboo Cameron and Billy Barker. It is literally possible to follow in their footsteps. The road was constructed by the Royal Engineers and surveyed by their leader, Colonel Richard Clement Moody, another important figure in BC’s history. Physical remains still exist of the communities that sprang up at each end of the trail and along its length. One can see the site of Begbie’s first trial, and a hill Moody climbed to survey the trail.