Barkerville/Bowron

Between 2010 and 2012, I completed my Master’s research on the environmental and Indigenous history of the Cariboo region of British Columbia. At the time, little academic research had been conducted in the area. Barkerville was primarily known for its role in the white colonial history of the establishment of British Columbia, and Bowron Lake as a pristine wilderness reserve. Yet a number of First Nations told stories about living and working there over the centuries (including Dakelh, Secwepepc, St’at’imc, Tsilhqot’in, Nlaka’pamux and other communities).

My work aimed to undo settler erasure of Indigenous people and reveal how parks (wilderness and heritage) are highly managed, political spaces. I relied primarily on documentary evidence produced by settlers about Indigenous land use and Indigenous/settler relations.

Since I completed my research in 2012, there have been many changes in the way history is told in the Cariboo, and many ways in which I would do this research differently.

LANGUAGE: Please be aware that the language used in many of my publications reflects academic standards at the time they were published. Language used to refer to Indigenous people in Canada is rooted in colonialism, and my use of outdated terms reflects my embeddedness in those systems. I have since changed the way I write about communities and have learned to take an explicitly anti-colonial stance in my research.

Despite its flaws, I hope my past work continues to serve as a helpful reference for communities, historians, interpreters, and storytellers who work in this field. I have left them archived here because they have already proved useful in improving heritage interpretation and as a tool for First Nations looking for documentary evidence of historic land use. You can find links to my original publications below – but don’t stop here. Talk to an Elder. Learn about whose land you live on. And if you want to read more, scroll down to read my Barkerville/Bowron bibliography.

My publications

Want to know more about Barkerville and Bowron?

Just want the highlights?

Dr. Jorgenson’s Picks:

1. Start with BC Studies 185 (special issue on Barkerville).
2. Learn how Barkerville fits into gold rush context of BC with John Lutz’s Makuk.
3. Check out Barkerville’s homepage, where you can visit virtually or explore the archives for yourself.
4. Read my articles, linked above. “Into That Country to Work” is probably the best and most succinct.

This list is not complete, and is based on research conduction in 2010. If you have suggestions for additional sources, please contact me.

Primary Sources: 

Annual Reports of the Game Conservation Board of the Province of British Columbia and Annual Reports of the Provincial Game Commissioner.

Benson, Seth B. “A New Race of Beaver from British Columbia.” Journal of Mammalogy 14 (4) (1933): 320-325.

“Bowron Lake: Where Grizzly, Moose, Caribou and Goat Roam the Unspoiled Wilderness.” The Vancouver Sunday Province, 12 September 1926.

Brookes, Allan. “The Invasion of Moose in British Columbia.” The Murrelet 9 (2)(1928): 43-44.

Brookes, Allan. “Past and Present Big-Game Conditions in British Columbia and the Predatory Mammal Question.” Journal of Mammalogy 7 (1) (1926): 37-30.

Eklund, Carl. “Fur Resource Management in British Columbia.” The Journal of Wildlife Management 10 (1) (1946): 29-33.

Hewitt, C. Gordon. The Conservation of the Wild Life of Canada. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1921.

Lebourdias Papers held at the Royal BC Archives.

McCabe, Thomas T. and Elinor Bolles McCabe. “Hawks and Kingfisher.” The Auk 45 (3)(1928): 374.

McCabe, Thomas T. and Elinor Bolles McCabe. “Migratory Movement of Citellus Columbianus in Caribou District, British Columbia.” The Murrelet 9 (1) (1928): 22-23.

McCabe, Thomas T. and Elinor Bolles McCabe. “The Bowron Lake Moose: Their History and Status.” The Murrelet 9 (1) (1928): 1-9.

McCabe, Thomas T. and Elinor Bolles McCabe. “The British Columbia Moose Again.” The Murrelet 9 (3) (1928): 60-63. 

Tregillis Fonds held at the Barkerville Museum and Archives.

Secondary Sources:

Bella, Leslie. Parks for Profit. Montreal: Harvest House, 1987.

B.C. Parks Cariboo District. Bowron Lake, Cariboo Mountains and Cariboo River Provincial Parks. Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, June 2001.

Black, Edwin. “British Columbia: The Politics of Exploitation.” In A History of British Columbia: Selected Readings. Edited by Patricia E. Roy (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1989): 129-142.

Colpitts, George. Game In the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada to 1940. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002.

Craig-Brown, Robert. “The Doctrine of Usefulness: Natural Resource and National Park Policy in Canada 1887-1914.” In Canadian Parks in Perspective. Edited by J.G. Nelson. Montreal: Harvest House, 1970), 46-62.

Loo, Tina. “Of Moose and Men: Hunting for Masculinities in British Columbia, 1880-1939.” Canadian Historical Review 82 (2001): 296-391.

Loo, Tina. States of Nature: Conserving Canada’s Wildlife in the Twentieth Century. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1962.

Hays, Samuel. Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959.

Harris, Chris and Jenny Harris. The Bowron Lakes: British Columbia’s Wilderness Canoe Circuit. Vancouver: Gordon Soules, 1991.

Ireland, Brenda. “’Working a Great Hardship on Us:’ First Nations People, the State, and Fur-bearer Conservation in British Columbia Prior to 1930.” Native Studies Review 11 (1)(1996): 65-90.

Forsythe, Mark and Greg Dickson. The Trail of 1858. Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2007.

Gillis, Peter and Thomas Roach. “A Touch of Pinchotism: Forestry in British Columbia 1912-1939.” In A History of British Columbia: Selected Readings. Edited by Patricia E. Roy (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1989): 72-107.

Lindsay, F.W. The Cariboo Story. Vernon Interior Printers: 1958.

Merchant, Carolyn.“Chapter 7: Conservation and Preservation, 1785-1950.” In The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002): 120-139.

Millar, Char. Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism. Washington: Island Press, 2001. 

Reiger, John F. American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation. Third edition. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2001.

Runte, Alfred. National Parks: The American Experience. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979. 

Stonier-Newman, Lynne. Policing a Pioneer Province: The BC Provincial Police 1858-1950. Maderia Park: Harbour, 1991.

Wilson, William. “Reginald H. Thomson and planning for Strathcona Park, 1912-15.” Planning Perspectives 17 (2002): 373-387.
Wright, Richard. Bowron Lake Provincial Park: The Only All Season’s Guide to North America’s Unique Canoe Route. Surrey: Heritage House, 1994.

Published Primary Sources

Dominion of Canada, Annual Reports of the Department of Indian Affairs.

Fraser, Simon. Letters and Journals of Simon Fraser, 1806-1808. Edited by W. Kaye Lamb. Dundurn: Toronto, 2007.

Langevin, H.L. British Columbia: Report of the Honourable H.L. Langevin, Minister of Public Works. Ottawa: I.B. Taylor, 1872.

McCabe, Thomas and Elinor McCabe. “The Bowron Lake Moose: Their History and Status.” The Murrelet 9, (1)(January 1928).

McGillivray, Joseph. “Appendix A: Report of Fort Alexandria Western Caledonia Columbia River District Outfit 1827.” In The Publications of the Champlain Society: Simpson’s 1828 Journey to the Columbia. Edited by E.E. Rich. Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1947.

Palmer, Spencer. Report on Portions of the Williams Lake and Cariboo Districts and on the Fraser River from Fort Alexander to Fort George. New Westminister: Royal Engineers Press, 1863.

“Penalty for selling liquor to the Natives, 1858.” In List of Proclamations for 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, and 1864 [also 1865]. Early Canadiana Online, http://canadiana.org/record/9_03462. Accessed 15 January 2012.

Thorington, J. Monroe ed. The Cariboo Journal of John Macoun. Philadelphia: Geographical Society, 1930.

Victoria Colonist.

Published Secondary Sources:

Barnhart, Jacqueline Baker. “Working Women: Prostitution in San Francisco from the gold rush to 1900.” Ph.D. Diss. University of California Santa Cruz, 1976.

Baugh, Timothy and Jonathon Ericson. Prehistoric Exchange Systems in North America. New York: Plenum Press, 1994.

Bescoby, Isabel M.L. “Society in Cariboo During the Gold Rush,” 69-80. In Sa ts’e: Historical Perspectives on Northern British Columbia. Edited by Thomas Thorner. Prince George: College of New Caledonia Press, 1989. 

Boyde, Jim, Chris Harris, and Dean Hull The Bowron Lakes: A Guide to Paddling British Columbia’s Wilderness Canoe Circuit. Country Light Publishing: 108 Mile Ranch, 2006.

Brody, Hugh. Maps and Dreams: Indians and the British Columbia Frontier. Second edition. Vancouver: Douglas and Macintyre, 1988.

Byrne, Tony, Peter Marshall, Lawrence Tuttle, Erro Whitfhield, and P.R. Whitfield. A Report of Cave Studies on Huckey Creek, Bowron Lake Provincial Park. Victoria: Parks Branch, Department of Recreation and Conservation, 1973.

Canada. Dept. of Indian and Northern Affairs. Treaties and Historical Research Centre. P.R.E. Group. The Historical Development of the Indian Act, by Robert Moore. Second Edition. Ottawa: Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1978.

Condrashoff, Nancy. “An Archaeological Outline of Bowron Lakes Provincial Park for the Interpretation Branch of the Provincial Parks Department.” Archaeology Division, British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1976.

Duclos, Noel. Packers, Pans, and Paydirt: Prospecting to the Cariboo. Quesnel: Arthur Duclos, 1995.

Fisher, Robin. Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890. Second edition. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1992.

Forsythe, Mark and Greg Dickson. The Trail of 1858: British Columbia’s Gold rush Past. Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2007.

Foster, Hamar. “Letting Go the Bone: The Idea of Indian Title in British Columbia, 1849-1927, 28-86.” In Essays in the History of Canadian Law VI: British Columbia and the Yukon, ed. Hamar Foster and John McLaren. Toronto: Osgoode Society, 1995.

Foster, Hamar. “The Queen’s Law is Better than Yours’: International Homicide in Early British Columbia,” 41-111. In Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume V, Crime and Criminal Justice, edited by Jim Phillips, Tina Loo, and Susan Lewthwaite. Toronto: The Osgoode Society, 1994. 

Genini, Ronald. “The Fraser-Cariboo Gold Rushes: Comparisons and Contrasts with the California Gold Rush.” Journal of the West 11 (3)(July 1972).

Gough, Barry. Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984.

Grove, Alan. “’Where is the Justice, Mr. Mills?’: A Case Study of R. v. Nantuck,” 87-127. In Essays in the History of Canadian Law: British Columbia and the Yukon, edited by Hamar Foster and John McLaren. Toronto: Osgood Society, 199. 

Hamilton, Douglas. Sobering Dilemma: A History of Prohibition in British Columbia. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2004.

Harris, Chris and Jenny Harris. The Bowron Lakes: British Columbia’s Wilderness Canoe Circuit. Gordon Soules Book Publishers: Vancouver, 1991.

Harris, Cole. “Social Power and Cultural Change in Pre-Colonial British Columbia.” BC Studies 115/116 (1997/1998): 45-82.

Harris, Cole. The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000.

Harvey, R.G. Carving the Western Path by River, Rail, and Road Through Central and Northern B.C. Surrey: Heritage House, 1999.

Herbert, Christopher. “Unequal Participants: Race and Space in the Interracial Interactions of the Cariboo Gold Fields, 1860-1871.” Master’s Thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2005.

Hong, Bill. And So…That’s How it Happened: Recollections of Stanley-Barkerville 1900-1975. W.M. Hong: Coquitlam, 1978.

Hudson, Douglas. “Traplines and Timber: Social and Economic Change Among the Carrier Indians of Northern British Columbia.” Ph.D. diss., University of Alberta, 1983.

Kennedy, Michael. “Fraser River Placer Mining Landscapes.” BC Studies 160 (2008/2009): 35-66.

Knight, Rolf. Indians at Work: An Information History of Native Labour in British Columbia, 1848-1930. Vancouver: New Star, 1996.

Krech, Shepard. “Fire,” 114-135. In Canadian Environmental History: Essential Readings. Edited by David Freeland Duke. Canadian Scholar’s Press: Toronto, 2006.

Laite, Julia Ann. “Historical Perspectives on Industrial Development, Mining, and Prostitution.” The Historical Journal 52 (3)(2009): 739-761.

Loo, Tina. Making Law, Order, and Authority in British Columbia, 1821-1871. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

Loo, Tina. “Tonto’s Due: Law, Culture, and Colonization in British Columbia,” 128-170. In Essays in the History of Canadian Law: British Columbia and the Yukon, edited by Hamar Foster and John McLaren. Toronto: Osgood Society, 1995.

Lutz, John. “After the Fur Trade: The Aboriginal Labouring Class of British Columbia 1849-1890.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 3 (1)(1992): 69-93.

Lutz, John. Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008.

Macleod, R.C. “Law and Order on the Western-Canadian Frontier,” 90-105. In Law for the Elephant, Law for the Beaver: Essays in the Legal History of the North American West, edited by John McLaren, Hamar Foster, and Chet Orloff. Pasadena: The Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 1992.

Mane, Elliot. Gold and Grand Dreams: Cariboo East in the Early Years (Victoria: Horsdal & Schubard, 2000).

Marshall, Daniel Patrick. “Claiming the Land: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to British Columbia.” University of British Columbia, Doctoral Thesis, 13 February 2000. 

Marten, Ken and Mike Robinson. “System ‘E’ Survey, Wells Grey Provincial Park, Bowron Lake Provincial Park and Upper Fraser River.” Archaeological Sites Advisory Board, 1972.

Moosang, Faith. C.D. Hoy Historical Photographs Project, Barkerville Historic Town Library and Archives, Barkerville.

Morice, A.G. A History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia (formerly New Caledonia. Toronto: William Briggs, 1905.

Nichols, Roger L. Indians in the United States and Canada: A Comparative History. London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

Ormsby, Margaret A. British Columbia: a History. Vancouver: MacMillan, 1958.

Parker, Graham. “Canadian Legal Culture,” 3-29. In Law and Justice in a New Land: Essays in Western-Canadian Legal History, edited by Louis Knafla. Toronto: Carswell, 1986.

Perry, Adele “’Fair Ones of a Purer Caste:’ White Women and Colonialism in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia.” Feminist Studies 23 (3) (1997): 501-524

Perry, Adele. On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, and the Making of British Columbia, 1849-1871. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.

Ramsey, Bruce. Barkerville: A Guide to the Fabulous Cariboo Gold Camp. Langley: Sunfire, 1987.

Reid, John Phillip. Patterns of Vengeance: Crosscultural Homicide in the North American Fur Trade. Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 1999.

Roy, Patricia E. and John Herd Thompson. British Columbia: Land of Promises. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Ryley, Bay. Gold Diggers of the Klondike: Prostitution in Dawson City, Yukon, 1898-1908. Canada: Watson & Dwyer, 1997.

Sphere, Jean. Bowron Chain of Lakes: Place Names and People. High Plateau Printing: Quesnel, 1983.

Speare, Jean ed. The Days of Augusta. Vancouver: J.J. Douglas Ltd., 1973.

Sterne, Netta. Fraser Gold 1858! The Founding of British Columbia. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1998. 

Swainger, Jonathan. “A Distant Edge of Authority: Capital Punishment and the Prerogative of Mercy in British Columbia, 1872-1880.” In Essays in the History of Canadian Law VI: British Columbia and the Yukon, edited by Hamar Foster and John McLaren. Toronto: Osgoode Society, 1995.

Taniguchi, Nancy. “Weaving a Different World: Women and the California Gold Rush.” California History, 79 (2)(Summer, 2000): 141-168.

Turkel, William. Archive of Place: Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007.

Williams, David R. “The Administration of Criminal and Civil Justice in the Mining Camps and Frontier Communities of British Columbia,” 215-232. In Law and Justice in a New Land: Essays in Western Canadian Legal History, edited by Louis A. Knafla. Toronto: Carswell, 1986.

Williams, David R.“The Man for a New Country,” Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie. Sydney: Grey’s Publishing, 1877.

Woodcock, George. British Columbia: A History of the Province. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1990.

Wright, Richard. Barkerville, Williams Creek, Cariboo: A Gold Rush Experience. Williams Lake: Winter Quarters Press, 1998.

Wright, Richard. Bowron Lake Provincial Park: The All-Seasons Guide. (Surrey: Heritage House, 1994.