The mining operations of 1858 only sufficed to indicate vaguely the general auriferous nature of the country. Thousands of those who left San Francisco never saw the mining region and never washed a pan of dirt. Those who persevered did so under the greatest of difficulties and hardships, owing to the lack of provisions and the absence of any safe communications beyond Yale.
The solidly formed belief amongst the miners was that farther up the river, in the interior, richer diggings would be found. Early in the season of 1858 Aaron Post, a miner from Eldorado country, California, had made his way as far as the mouth of the Chilcotin River, testing and trying every bar and finding gold in them all. The scarcity of provisions prevented those who followed in his footsteps from carrying on continuous and systematic work so far from the base of supplies at Yale.
The low stage of the Fraser River early in 1859 afforded the miners on the lower portion the opportunity to ascend. In April the Governor reported that up to March 24th, three hundred boats, carrying an average of five men, had left Yale for the upper Fraser, and an even greater number were making their way overland. The opening of the trail by way of Harrison, Lillooet, Anderson and Seton Lakes, late in 1858, had given access to the Fraser above the canyons.
The season of 1859 saw most of the bars on the lower Fraser deserted for the dry diggings, or bench diggings, that is the flats on the banks of the river above its highest level. This kind of mining required capital, or at any rate bringing water to the claims, where often eight or ten feet of overburden must be removed before the gold-bearing stratum was reached. Of these dry diggings, besides the Bond, George, Hovey and Fountain, which had been worked the preceding year, the most important were the Emory Bar and Hunter Bar Dry Diggings, seven miles below Yale; the benches at Hill’s Bar; the benches at Nicaragua Bar in the Big, or Black Canyon, a little below Boston Bar; and the benches at Cameron Bar.
The individual miner, therefore, whose capital restricted him to pick, shovel, and rocker, seized the opportunity to ascend the river in search of paying bars where the gold lay within a few inches of the surface. The Thompson River drew some miners to its banks, and their efforts were rewarded by finds on the Tranquille, Defaut, Nicola, and Nicomen Rivers, but the Fraser was more attractive. The Fountain, which lay on the left bank of the Fraser some six miles above Lillooet, was the objective point in 1858. The centre of mining in 1858 was between Hope and Yale; but in 1859 it was above Lillooet, or at least, above Lytton.
In May, 1859, Lieutenant Palmer reported that at French Bar rockers were averaging from $4 to $8 per day per man, and sluices $8 to $16; at Upper Mormon Bar, rockers $4 to $12, sluices $16 to $25; at Days Bar, rockers $8 to $12; at Haskell’s Bar rockers $6 to $12, sluices $16 to $20.
These bars formed but stepping stones for the restless, roaming miners, who pressed on and on up the river, finding gold wherever they prospected, but never satisfied, striving to discover those richer diggings. The Fraser was examined and prospected for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles beyond Fort George, and every bar was reported as promising from $5 to $6 per day to the man.
Bear in mind when trying to evaluate the worth of the various bars that gold was valued at that time from $12 to $16 per ounce, and that the average man, using a “rocker,” could wash about one cubic yard of gravel per day. It would seem therefore, that the approximate values to be found on the various bars was from one-third to one-half an ounce of gold per cubic yard.
Better fortune came to those who left the Fraser and ascended the Quesnel River. Late in 1859 after prospecting its bars, which proved far richer than those of the Fraser River, Cariboo Lake was found. In cumbersome rafts, miners made their way along its shores. Rich strikes, in some cases $200 per day per man, were reported. Gold in large quantities was also found on the Horsefly River, which flows into Quesnel Lake from the south. There a party of five men, in one week with two rockers, took out one hundred and one ounces.
Early in 1860, gold seekers from the American territory rushed to the Similkameen; but the diggings did not appear very remunerative. Governor Douglas reports on April 23, 1860, that some twenty or thirty men were making from $8 to $10 per day, but that the remainder were not paying expenses.
Mr. Sanders, the Gold Commissioner at Yale, reported on April 14, 1860, that he feared the rush into that far-away Cariboo region would depopulate the Yale district. In January, 1860, the mining population in the vicinity of Hope had dwindled to two hundred, each of them earning from $3 to $12 per day. The future of the southern region as a gold-producing district looked bleak. Governor Douglas suggested that a party of nine experienced miners be sent into the Similkameen country to examine the prospects there, the Government furnishing the food and agreeing to pay each man a bonus of $20 if gold were found.
In July this party reported that they had found profitable diggings at Rock Creek. Immediately a great rush of people, not only from Hope and Yale, but also from the adjacent American territory, entered into this new region. The gold there was nuggety, of extreme purity, and readily saved without the use of quicksilver. In one instance, two men in six weeks took out $1300.
The year 1860 also saw a great increase in the number of miners on the upper reaches of the Fraser, and especially along the Quesnel River. Rich Bar, some 53 miles above Alexandria yielded an immense return, as high as $60 per day per man. When the pay streak near the river was exhausted, the gravel from the flats was wheeled hundreds of yards to be rocked at the river bank; even then $7 to $10 per hand was made.
During 1860, about four thousand miners were at work, of whom perhaps three thousand were on the Fraser and its tributaries beyond Lillooet. The original diggings, both bar and bench, along the lower Fraser were now practically given over to the Chinese. The miners divided the country into the Rock Creek and Kootenay districts; above the Thompson River district, as far as Canoe Creek, on the Fraser; beyond lay the Canoe country; still further was the Balloon country; and yet further removed was the Cariboo country. These divisions, though very indefinite, served to distinguish the localities in a vague and general way.
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