Road Building Culture

In 1862, the race was on to build a road to the goldfields of the Cariboo. James Douglas, who was governor of both the colonies (Vancouver Island and British Columbia), invited business people to build a road and then charge tolls to the users. Four competing routes emerged, each vying to be the first, the shortest, and the fastest route to the gold. Two started from the Fraser River up from New Westminster, the capital of the colony of British Columbia; two were started up the coast by business people from Victoria, the capital of the neighbouring colony of Vancouver Island. Not only would a successful road make the businessmen rich, but each city had a lot at stake. If one of the up-coast routes became the favourite, Victoria would supply the mines and New Westminster would be bypassed. If a route from New Westminster prospered, that city, not Victoria, would be enriched by the mines, or so it was thought.

The Fraser River routes included what came to be called the Cariboo Road, which started at Yale, the farthest point a steamer could go up the Fraser before it hit an impassable canyon. Another, the Harrison-Lillooet Route, bypassed the canyon by a series of lakes and portages to join the Cariboo Road at Lillooet.

The proposed up-coast roads included Lt. Palmer’s route, an ancient aboriginal route from Bella Coola at the end of Bentinck Arm, along the Chilcotin Plateau to Fort Alexandria near the goldfields on the Fraser River. The other, proposed by a Victoria businessman, Alfred Waddington, started at a townsite he named after himself at the end of Bute Inlet. It was the shortest overland route, following the Homathco River through the Coast Mountain Range to Fort Alexandria. Lt. Palmer went to survey the Bentinck Arm route and Waddington’s road crew left Victoria to start construction just as smallpox was erupting in spring 1862. Both up-coast routes crossed the territory of the Tsilhqot’in people.

By 1864 the Cariboo Road was closing in on Barkerville, giving the edge to New Westminster, whose interests were promoted by a new governor. When James Douglas retired in 1864, Governor Kennedy was appointed to the colony of Vancouver Island and Governor Seymour to British Columbia, and the rivalry between the two colonies increased.

Palmer's Trail

Miscellaneous

• Henry Spencer Palmer, Report of a Journey of Survey, from Victoria to Fort Alexander, via North Bentinck Arm, 1863

Newspaper or Magazine Articles

• VIATOR, A Trip to the Head of Bentinck Arm on the Steamer Labouchere, British Colonist, August 18, 1862
• VIATOR, A Trip to the Head of Bentinck Arm on the Steamer Labouchere, British Colonist, August 19, 1862
• VIATOR, A Trip to the Head of Bentinck Arm on the Steamer Labouchere, British Colonist, August 20, 1862

Waddington's Road

Books

• Frederick Whymper, Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, 1966

Colonial Correspondence

• Alfred Waddington, Letter to R. C. Moody, January 19, 1863
• William A. G. Young, Letter to the Chief Commissioner of Lands & Works of Vancouver Island, February 25, 1863
• W. A. G. Young, Letter to Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, November 5, 1863
• Alfred Waddington, Letter to the Colonial Secretary of British Columbia, June 9, 1864
• Alfred Waddington, Letter to the Colonial Secretary of British Columbia, June 2, 1865

Journal Articles

• Frederick John Saunders, 'Homatcho,' or, The Story of the Bute Inlet Expedition, and the Massacre by the Chilcoaten Indians, The Resources of British Columbia

Newspaper or Magazine Articles

• The British Columbian, The Northern Route, The British Columbian, April 18, 1861
• The British Colonist, Bute Inlet Route, The British Colonist, May 6, 1861
• The British Colonist, Coast Route Meeting, The British Colonist, June 5, 1861
• The British Colonist, Coast Route Meeting, The British colonist, June 11, 1861
• The British Colonist, The Bute Inlet Surveying Party, The British Colonist, December 21, 1861
• Victoria Colonist, Bute Inlet, Victoria Colonist, May 7, 1862
• British Colonist, The Bute Inlet Route, British Colonist, August 1, 1862
• Daily British Colonist, Bute Inlet Road, Daily British Colonist, August 25, 1862
• The British Colonist, The Bute Inlet Meeting, The British Colonist, August 27, 1862
• British Colonist, Return of the Bute Inlet Expedition, British Colonist, November 15, 1862
• British Colonist, Bute Inlet Company, British Colonist, January 7, 1863
• Victoria Daily Chronicle, From Bute Inlet, Victoria Daily Chronicle, July 28, 1863
• The British Columbian, The Bute Inlet Route, The British Columbian, June 1, 1864
• The British Columbian, The Chronicle and the Bute Route, The British Columbian, June 8, 1864
• Daily British Colonist, Appeal to the Public of Victoria, Daily British Colonist, June 28, 1864