Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858

Gold fever brought the forty-niners to California in search of fortune. By 1858, most of the gold had been mined and thousands of miners stood idle or worked subsistence claims. News came that gold had been found on the Fraser River in New Caledonia, present-day British Columbia, and another gold rush had begun.

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) received a charter from the English government in the 17th century to carry on the fur trade and other commerce in New Caledonia. In the early 1850s, Indians from the First Nations realized that the English placed a value on gold, a mineral the Indians had previously ignored. They began to mine gold, trading it to trappers and miners for other supplies. In 1857, James Houston, originally from Scotland, hearing that there might be gold on the Columbia River, deserted ship in Vancouver and traveled overland, eventually making his way to Fort Kamloops on the Thompson River. He found gold on the river and traded it, in exchange for his room and board, to Donald McLean, Chief Trader in charge of the fort for HBC, and stories of gold in the Fraser River and Thompson River valleys started to make their way out of the valleys. The Indians continued to mine gold through this period, but McLean had convinced them to now trade directly with the fort.

McLean sent the gold he collected to the HBC headquarters at Fort Victoria, where it was forwarded to the San Francisco mint. HBC sent more than 800 ounces to the mint. Miners in San Francisco heard the news, and a new gold fever started to rise. By the spring of 1858, more than 30,000 miners came to the Fraser River Valley, with new towns springing from nowhere.

Much of the news of the gold strike came from letters sent by miners to their families and homes. One such letter, by an unknown Norwegian, was published in his hometown newspaper in Stavenger, Norway. He told of arriving in Victoria and walking to a new town, Whatkom, at the trail's head. Two months old, the town repeated the story of many towns in gold strike country. The letter writer relates how his friend, a gunsmith named Gullickson, had purchased a lot for $50. Six weeks later, with a new house on the lot, Gullickson was offered $3,000, which he declined. As the only gunsmith in town, Gullickson said that he had earned more money in six weeks of mining than an entire year's work in San Francisco could command.

Letters published in the San Francisco newspapers told of miners, who had been making $5 per week on their California claims or $5 per day working for a large mining company, now making from $8 to $100 per day and more. The newspaper Alta California sent correspondents into the gold strike country to provide [Page 243]an accurate picture to its readers. One man reported taking $2,600 of gold dust in two months. Stories told of miners finding 50 to 60 ounces in a day, when gold was selling for $18 an ounce. It was reported that “almost every Indian on Fraser's river has within his buckskin purse, from one to six inches of dust.”

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