An Englishman named Billy Barker first struck gold in Barkerville in 1862, quickly attracting a rush of miners and migrants, along with the services to support them. The Cariboo Gold Rush preceded the more famous and chaotic Klondike Gold Rush by three decades, but its impact was critical for the fledgling Dominion of Canada.

Centred around Barkerville, which quickly became one of the largest settlements north of San Francisco and west of Chicago, the colony of British Columbia built ambitious infrastructure to support the booming gold fields. When the rush subsided, construction of the 640-kilometre-long Cariboo Wagon Road had essentially bankrupted the colony, contributing to the colony’s financial troubles and pushing B.C. toward Confederation. Factor in an 1868 fire that destroyed the town in less than an hour, a miraculous rebuild of 90 buildings in just six weeks, the town’s decline into a ghost settlement, and its rebirth as the largest living-history museum in western North America, and there’s a lot to learn. But first, we’ll need to swap out our threads for something more appropriate.

We get our hands inky, take our handmade prints and head off for a lesson in Mandarin calligraphy with Teacher Zhou, the best school teacher you never had. 

During the height of the gold rush, approximately 5000 Chinese people lived in Barkerville, making up half the town’s population and creating one of the oldest Chinatowns on the continent. Facing systemic discrimination, they still found success and built a thriving community. Barkerville’s Chee Kung Tong Building, a National Historic Site, is among the oldest ethnic structures in Canada, and the museum has one of the largest Chinese archival collections in the country. Visitors can learn about Chinese history in several buildings and enjoy great food at the Lung Duck Tong Restaurant, too. As for Teacher Zhou, he is enthusiastic, entertaining, patient, and a highlight for kids and their parents.