Barkerville

Barkerville, restored mining town, east-central British Columbia, Canada. It lies in the western foothills of the Cariboo Mountains, just west of Bowron Lake Provincial Park and 55 miles (88 km) east of Quesnel. Once a boomtown of nearly 10,000 inhabitants, it sprang up during the Cariboo gold rush and was named after Billy Barker, a prospector who made an important strike locally at Williams Creek in 1862. It is now a provincial historical park (established in 1959, when the town’s remaining residents—except for one who remained until 1979—were relocated to nearby New Barkerville) and a living-history tourist attraction. The 400-mile (650-kilometre) Cariboo Road from Yale at the head of navigation of the Fraser River to Barkerville was the major wagon route in the 1860s to the gold-mining region; it is now rebuilt and much extended.