The Old Cariboo Road is a reference to the original wagon road to the Cariboo gold fields in what is now the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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 ...

. It should not be confused with the

Cariboo Road 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 Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas. It was built in response to the Cariboo Gold Rus ...

, which was built slightly later and used a different route. It was built from

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, beginning in 1859, and was a precursor to the slightly later Cariboo Wagon Road that was built from

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

via Cache Creek-

Ashcroft Ashcroft may refer to: Places * Ashcroft, British Columbia, a village in Canada **Ashcroft House in Bagpath, Gloucestershire, England—eponym of the Canadian village * Ashcroft, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Ashcroft, Colorado, ...

. Access to the start of the road at Lillooet was made by the

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior Plateau, Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cat ...

or Lakes Route from Port Douglas, at the head of Harrison Lake. It is the mileages from Lillooet on the Old Cariboo Road, properly known as the Lillooet-Alexandria Road, that the "road house" placenames of British Columbia, such as 100 Mile House, are measured. The road was a toll-route and built by private contractor Gustavus Blin-Wright, a prominent British-Swedish entrepreneur in colonial British Columbia who also contracted to build roads and provide steamer services in the Kootenay region. Blin-Wright also operated the steamer which connected the end of the road at Alexandria with Quesnel (then Quesnellemouthe). When the Cariboo Road proper was built, it converged with the existing route of the Old Cariboo Road at Clinton, and followed the earlier road to Alexandria, but was extended up the Fraser from there to Quesnel (thereby eliminating the need for steamer travel on that stretch of the upper Fraser) and completed eastward from there to Barkerville. 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 Old Cariboo Trail

From Wallula Gap on the Columbia River, the Old Cariboo Trail was built over the route of the Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, which began at Fort Okanagan, near the

Wallula Gap Wallula Gap () is a large water gap of the Columbia River in the Northwestern United States, in Southeastern Washington. It cuts through the Horse Heaven Hills basalt anticlines in the Columbia River Basin, just south of the confluence of t ...

area on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

and passed north through Eastern

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

along the Columbia River to the

Okanogan River The Okanogan River (known as the Okanagan River in Canada) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 115 mi (185 km) long, in southern British Columbia and north central Washington. It drains a scenic plateau region called t ...

and north into

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

fur traders brigades followed this route up until 1847, when the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew from the Northwest. Cattle drives were common along this trail to supply the gold miners, who arrived in British Columbia in the late 1850s. In

Washington Territory The Washington Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

a wagon road from Wallula (

Fort Nez Percés Fort Nez Percés (or Fort Nez Percé, with or without the acute accent), later known as (Old) Fort Walla Walla, was a fortified fur trading post on the Columbia River on the territory of modern-day Wallula, Washington. Despite being named after ...

near Walla Walla) to the gold mining regions of British Columbia was known as the "Cariboo Trail" or the "Wallula-Okanogan Road". Connecting to the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

at Wallula, it ran north across Quincy Flats past

Moses Lake Moses Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of Crab Creek, in the U.S. state of Washington. Moses Lake is part of the Columbia River basin, as Crab Creek is a tributary of the Columbia River. Although originally a shallow natural lake ...

, then crossed the lower

Grand Coulee Grand Coulee is an ancient river bed in the U.S. state of Washington. This National Natural Landmark stretches for about southwest from Grand Coulee Dam to Soap Lake, being bisected by Dry Falls into the Upper and Lower Grand Coulee. Geo ...

at present day Coulee City. From there it turned north and crossed the

Waterville Plateau Waterville may refer to: Places Canada * Waterville, Quebec * Waterville, Nova Scotia * Waterville, Carleton County, New Brunswick, a rural community * Waterville, Sunbury County, New Brunswick, a rural community * Waterville, Newfoundland and La ...

to reach the Columbia River near

Fort Okanogan Fort Okanogan (also spelled Fort Okanagan but only by nonresident Canadians) was founded in 1811 on the confluence of the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers as a fur trade outpost. Originally built for John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, it was ...

. From there it followed the valley of the

Okanagan River The Okanogan River (known as the Okanagan River in Canada) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 115 mi (185 km) long, in southern British Columbia and north central Washington. It drains a scenic plateau region called t ...

into Canada, connecting with the

Okanagan Trail The Okanagan Trail was an inland route to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush from the Lower Columbia region of the Washington and Oregon Territories in 1858–1859. The route was essentially the same as that used by the Hudson's Bay Company fur brig ...

. The section known in Canada as the Cariboo Trail departed from the northernmost of the Okanagan Trail routes near today's

Savona Savona (; ) is a seaport and (municipality) in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria, and the capital of the Province of Savona. Facing the Ligurian Sea, Savona is the main center of the Riviera di Ponente (the western se ...

to head up the

Deadman River The Deadman River, also known as the Deadman's River, Deadman Creek or Deadman's Creek, is a tributary of the Thompson River in the British Columbia Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is about in length. Name The river's name dates back to ...

towards the initial strikes near Likely and

Horsefly, British Columbia Horsefly is an unincorporated community on the northwest shore of the Horsefly River, in the Cariboo region of central British Columbia. The location, via BC Highway 97, Likely Rd, and Horsefly Rd, is about northeast of Williams Lake, and by ...

Route

The Old Cariboo Road started at Lillooet (or 0 Mile House) where it directly went to Alexandria. From there a steamboat service was provided to Quesnellemouthe (now Quesnel) where it ended. A trail from there then went east to Barkerville where gold was discovered. From Lillooet there was a trail that went south to Lytton. This was part of the Old Cariboo Road that avoided the Fraser Canyon. By 1864 a new Cariboo road was built, which took a different route, although from Clinton to Alexandria much of the Old Cariboo Road was used for the newer Cariboo Road.

The Old Cariboo Trail

Route

See also

References

Further reading