Quesnel Forks, historically Quesnelle Forks, also simply known as "The Forks" or grandly known as "Quesnel City" is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in the

Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the Caribou (North America), caribou that were once abundant in the reg ...

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is located the junction of the

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard language, Picard dialect of French language, French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to: Places * Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France * Quesnel, British Columbia, a c ...

and

Rivers and is 60 km southeast of

and only 11 km northwest of Likely.

History

Quesnel Forks was founded in 1860 and was a major supply center for 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 ...

. Between 1860 and 1862 it catered to 2,000 or more transient miners annually and a resident population of approximately 100. When gold was discovered on Antler, Lightning and Williams Creek, on the north side of the Snowshoe Plateau, prospectors and packers continued to use the route via Quesnel Forks until a decent trail system was established via the Quesnel and the Cottonwood rivers. The Quesnel Forks Bridge (initially a toll bridge) provided the only access to the village and the mining regions of Keithley Creek and the Snowshoe Plateau until the 1920s. However, when the

Cariboo Wagon 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 ...

was completed in 1865, Quesnel Forks was bypassed and

Barkerville Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada, and is preserved as a historic town. It is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains east of Quesnel. BC Highway 26, which ...

became the major center of gold mining activity. By the mid-1870s most of the population had left, but a small, stable group of Chinese miners and merchants remained in Quesnel Forks which supported a widely dispersed mining community. Many of these people came from the Four Counties region of Guangdong Province, South China. Following completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway through Ashcroft in 1885 their population increased when discharged Chinese railroad labourers sought to make a living from gold mining. They were supported by a branch of the

Chee Kung Tong The Chee Kung Tong (), or Gee Kung Tong, was a Chinese secret society established in 1880 and holds an active presence still. In earlier years, the society has also been recognized as the "Chinese Masons" and has been identified under various n ...

Association who erected a two-storey building in the village. During that period the region contained the third largest group of Chinese residents after Victoria and Nanaimo. The CPR also facilitated a hydraulic mining boom in the Cariboo, delivering large mining equipment such as water canon and metal for pipes to Ashcroft. From there, ox teams and stage coaches transported equipment and mining speculators up the Cariboo Road to The Forks. The Bullion Pit mine nearby produced $1,233,936 (1900 dollar value) over eleven years and attracted large numbers of itinerant men who placed heavy demands on the resources of the village. The horse trail to the Cariboo Road was widened into a wagon road and the Quesnel Forks Bridge strengthened to accommodate heavy wagons in 1895. In that same year a new jail was built at the rear of the Government Agent's house (shown at the head of the bridge in the above photo which should be dated 1899) and the land around these buildings kept vacant in case of fire. The town was not abandoned until the 1950s.

Modern day

Today, visitors to Quesnel Forks can explore the restored pioneer buildings and historic

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

. Historical research and work projects began in the 1990s under the leadership of the Likely Cemetery Society and teacher/historian David Falconer. The cemetery area was cleared and secured, graves identified with headboards, and the

house stabilized with the assistance of local residents. Thanks to people like Brian Giesbrecht and his crew who have been restoring the old buildings to save them from a slow death into the soil, and from the river which is slowly eating away at the banks of the ghost town (half the town has been swept into the river over the past 8 years).

Television

Quesnel Forks was featured on the historical television series

Gold Trails and Ghost Towns ''Gold Trails and Ghost Towns'' is a Television in Canada, Canadian historical documentary show, created and produced by television station CHBC-DT, CHBC-TV in Kelowna, British Columbia for Canadian Broadcast syndication, syndication and hosted b ...

, season 1, episode 8.

Notes

External links

Quesnel Forks and Barkerville at HelloBC.com (BC Ministry of Tourism)

{{Subdivisions of British Columbia Ghost towns in British Columbia British Columbia gold rushes Geography of the Cariboo

History

Modern day

Television

Notes

Further reading

External links