July 29, 1864: I don’t know if I can stand it. Now we are nearly at Barkerville, and what if George is not there after all?
WELLS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
The Cariboo gold rush was long over and the world was in the grips of the Great depression when Fred Wells made one of the first hard rock gold discoveries in B.C. He founded the company town of Wells at the head of the Willow River and developed the Gold Quartz Mine, prompting the “Second Cariboo gold rush.”
For more information about Wells, please visit www.wellsbc.com.
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Three Fun Facts about Wells
Fred Wells was born in New Hampshire in 1861. One story says he came to B.C. in 1882 by crossing the Rocky Mountains from Calgary on an Indian pony “just to see what lay on the other side of the mountains.”
The town of Wells was a bustling community of 3,000 at its peak in 1940. Much smaller today, it blooms again in summer as a busy arts and recreation center.
The Wells Museum offers an exploration of the area’s history, including hard rock mining and thirties recreation.
