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Cariboo Road

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Route of the Cariboo Road in red. Steamboat travel in blue; dotted lines are alternate routes or routes to other goldfields

The Cariboo Road (also called the Cariboo Wagon Road, the Great North Road or the Queen's Highway) was a project initiated in 1860 by the colonial Governor of British Columbia, James Douglas. It was a feat of engineering stretching from Fort Yale to Barkerville through extremely hazardous canyon territory in the Interior of B.C.

A portion of the Cariboo Road just above Yale, circa 18671868
Credit: Frederick Dally / Library and Archives Canada / C-037864

The road was a reaction to the high concentration of gold in the Cariboo region and the dangerous "mule trail", which was a rough-hewn cliff-side trail wide enough only for one mule that ran along the approximate route of the Cariboo Road. In order to lower supply costs to the settlers in the Cariboo region, Douglas ordered the construction of a more viable and safe form of transportation to the gold mining settlements.

Building the road cost nearly one and a quarter million dollars, and left a standing debt of £112,780 after its completion, one of many infrastructure costs in servicing the Gold Colony that forced its amalgamation first with Vancouver Island, and then with Canada. The Cariboo Road saw the transportation of over six and a half million dollars worth of gold. Originally Douglas wanted to stretch the road to Alberta but this plan was abandoned when Douglas retired.

The "Old" Cariboo Road

The name Cariboo Road or Cariboo Trail is also informally applied to a toll road built by contractor Gustavus Blin-Wright from Lillooet to Alexandria Jackass Mountain, Boston Bar, Lytton and Spences Bridge, this route was known also as the Old Cariboo Road, when the Lakes Route from Port Douglas to Lillooet had not yet been superseded by the Fraser Canyon route of the Cariboo Wagon Road proper. The mile-house names (e.g. 100 Mile House), in the Cariboo are derived from measurements taken from the Mile '0' of this road, which is in the bend in the Main Street of Lillooet and commemorated there by a cairn erected in the 1958 Centennial Year. It was along this route that an attempt was made to use Bactrian camels purchased from the U.S. Camel Corps for freight, and also a tractor-style Thomson Road Steamer known as a "road train", one of the earliest motorized vehicles.

The Cariboo Road at Soda Creek. The style of truss-bridge shown is typical of Royal Engineer design. Photo: Frank Swannell, BC Govt surveyor

Most foot traffic from Lillooet to the Cariboo however, went by the "River Trail", far below the wagon road, which departed the Fraser Canyon at Pavilion for the steep climb over Pavilion Mountain to Clinton, where it merged with the newer Cariboo Road via Yale and Ashcroft (once the latter route was completed, that is). The River Trail continued along the Fraser Canyon as far as Big Bar and various routes spread towards Quesnel and Barkerville from there.

See also

Further reading

  • Downs, Art. Wagon Road North. NW Dispatch, 1960.
  • Paternaude, Branwen. Trails to Gold. Horsdahl and Schubert. 1995.
  • Wells, Martin. Steam to the Cariboo. Cordillera, 2009.