Cariboo on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Cariboo is an intermontane region of
Information on the South Cariboo
{{coord, 52, 00, N, 122, 00, W, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title History of British Columbia Interior of British Columbia
The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon
The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...
to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the caribou that were once abundant in the region.
The Cariboo was the first region of the interior north of the lower Fraser River
The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...
and its canyon to be settled by non-indigenous people, and played an important part in the early history of the colony and province. The boundaries of the Cariboo proper in its historical sense are debatable, but its original meaning was the region north of the forks of the Quesnel River and the low mountainous basins between the mouth of that river on the Fraser at the city of Quesnel and the northward end of the Cariboo Mountains, an area that is mostly in the Quesnel Highland and focused on several now-famous gold-bearing creeks near the head of the Willow River. The richest of them all, Williams Creek, is the location of Barkerville, which was both the capital of the Cariboo Gold Rush
The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Ri ...
and of government officialdom for decades afterwards (it is now a museum town).
The Cariboo goldfields are underpopulated today but were once the most settled and most significant of the regions of interior British Columbia. As settlement spread southwards of this area, flanking the route of the Cariboo Road and spreading out through the rolling plateaus and benchlands of the Cariboo Plateau and lands adjoining it along the Fraser and Thompson rivers, the meaning changed to include a wider area than just the goldfields.
The grasslands of the Cariboo are home to the regionally endangered American badger (''Taxidea taxus jeffersonii'').
Name
As early as 1861, Governor Douglas used the name Cariboo to describe the area in dispatches to Britain.Notable towns
North Cariboo: * Quesnel * Wells * Likely * Barkerville * McLeese Lake Central Cariboo: * Williams Lake * Horsefly * 150 Mile House * Lac La Hache South Cariboo: * 100 Mile House * Forest Grove * Interlakes * Lone Butte * 70 Mile House * ClintonSee also
* Cariboo Plateau *Cariboo Gold Rush
The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Ri ...
References
External links
Information on the South Cariboo
{{coord, 52, 00, N, 122, 00, W, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title History of British Columbia Interior of British Columbia