The historic town of Barkerville, B.C.

A highlight of my 10 day campervan trip throughout BC, Banff, and Jasper National Park in September, 2020, was a visit to the historic town of Barkerville, BC.

Barkerville is located near the Cariboo Mountains 80 kilometers east of Quesnel.

The secondary road (Highway 26) off from the main Highway 97 to Barkerville was well maintained and offered various historic stops and viewpoints along the way. I stopped briefly to buy preserves from a nice lady that set up shop from her home’s garage.

I arrived late in the day, secured a campsite and walked a few kilometers to the Barkerville village gates. It was closed as anticipated, but it was a nice stretch for my legs after a full day of driving that started from Fort St. James, BC.

The next day I arrived early and had a pleasant walk throughout Barkerville and learned so much about the historic town and with help from the friendly in-character costumed towns people. I had a nice chat with “Billy” Barker, his photo featured on top.

Barkerville is named after a working-class English prospector “Billy” Barker where he and his crew in 1862 struck gold at a mined depth of 52 feet in the Cariboo Goldfields. This town is a testament to BC’s golden beginnings with its 125+ heritage buildings and is the largest living history museum in western North America. It was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924.

Barkerville has its own Chinatown, a reflection of the Chinese residents that comprised half of the Cariboo regions population by the mid-1880s. Barkerville has some of the oldest Chinese buildings, photographs, and artifacts in North America.

Chinatown

Leave a Reply