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Barkerville delights Kids of All Ages
Written by Tom Douglas

BARKERVILLE, B.C. – If history had been taught this way in school, I wouldn’t have had to waste an entire summer cramming for a make-up exam.

Billed as British Columbia’s largest “living history” museum, Barkerville is a collection of more than 140 original and reconstructed buildings nestled in the sub-alpine forests of the interior of Canada’s westernmost province.

Whether you are interested in gold rush history, British Columbia's settlement patterns, Victorian-style theatre, or are simply on the lookout for a beautiful, relaxing vacation, Barkerville is an exceptional destination for anyone planning to travel, from near or far.

Leaving the Visitors Reception Centre after an audio/visual presentation about Billy Barker’s gold discovery at nearby Williams Creek, you’re instantly transported back in time. Directly in front of you is a town of the 1860s, complete with ramshackle wooden buildings, elevated boardwalks and strolling townspeople in period costume.

And these Barkerville “inhabitants” stay right in character from 9 a.m. when everything starts to come alive until dusk when, like Brigadoon, the town closes down and disappears into the mountain mist.

TThe real magic moment for our family occurred when we took in the live demonstration at the Cornish Waterwheel, a fully-functioning wooden replica 15 feet in diameter that stands on the bank of Williams Creek.

In an age where a child’s attention span is measured by the clicks of a TV remote, can you imagine a dozen youngsters sitting on a wooden plank for half an hour enthralled by a dissertation on gold mining in the 1860s? They laughed, they oohed, they aahed and they fell silent when Daniel Grimsby, the mine foreman, told of the hardships of trying to strike it rich in the northern wilderness.

What makes the whole show so entertaining is that Mr. Grimsby and the mine’s owner, a businesswoman by the name of Miss layfair, go through a whimsical patter where they treat the spectators as potential investors. Grimsby, who’s about as bright as the guttering candles they used to take down into the mines, keeps slipping up and revealing, much to the delight of their onlookers, that the mine is really worthless.

The long-suffering mine owner keeps telling Grimsby to shut up, even when the hapless foreman picks up a rock from the ground and stammers that it seems there really is gold on the property. When the message sinks in, Miss Playfair realizes she almost sold off a valuable claim for peanuts – and then unceremoniously tells their spectators to get off her land or she’ll have Grimsby throw them off – thus signaling the end of the show.

TTo make our visit to Barkerville complete, we had a family portrait taken in rented period costumes at the Louis A. Blanc Photography Studio. Then we dined at the Wake Up Jake Restaurant and we overnighted at one of 150 dry camping sites available to RV travelers in three different Barkerville campgrounds barkervillecampgrounds.ca

After two nights “roughing it” without television or video games, our youngsters were happy to head back to Quesnel, a lively, modern city about 60 miles west of Barkerville offering McDonald’s Happy Meals and the modern conveniences of a Ramada Inn.

But we older folk found ourselves still thinking about the pristine stillness and crisp mountain air that greeted us that first morning in Barkerville, wondering whether we’d really advanced all that far in terms of our own peace of mind in the past 140 years. Barkerville is about 770 km (480 miles) northeast of Vancouver in British Columbia’s Cariboo Chilcotin-Coast region. Driving from Vancouver, you have your choice of Highway #1 or Highway #5 (the Coquihalla) to Cache Creek. Then take Highway #97 north through Cariboo Country to Quesnel. From Quesnel, take Highway #26 about 60 miles east to Wells, the last settlement before Barkerville, a seven kilometer (five mile) drive further on.

Quesnel itself is a city of 11,000 with all the amenities found in a community of this size anywhere in North America. It is serviced by a number of full-service RV parks, including the Fraser Bridge Inn & RV Park, Airport Inn Motel & RV Park and Robert’s Roost Campsite (www.quesnel.travel.bc.ca/ camping/rv-park).

The best way to find out what Quesnel has to offer is to visit www.city.quesnel.bc.ca. You can also telephone the Quesnel Visitor Centre toll-free at 1-800-992-4922.

For information about the town of Wells, seven kilometers from Barkerville, visit www.wellsbc.com or phone the Wells Visitors Centre toll-free at 1- 877-451-9355.

For more information about Barkerville Historic Town, or for some friendly help planning your trip, visit www.barkerville.ca, or phone toll-free at 1-888-994-3332.