Photograph of dredge mining in Barkerville, BC

Photograph of dredge mining in Barkerville, BC

British Columbia
gold rush
gold
mining
placer
dredge
industrial

A 1958 photograph of gold dredge mining machinery in a mine in Barkerville, situated in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. Large gold dredge machines like this developed through the first half of the twentieth-century and are machines used for placer mining, whereby gold is extracted from sand, dirt and gravel cleaned using mechanical methods and water. The photograph documents the types of gold mining machinery used in mid-twentieth century Cariboo Region, and thus the method of mining practiced, and the large mined area shows the scale of the mines. Barkerville, where the photograph was taken was the most significant town in the Cariboo Region gold rush and is preserved today as an historic town. Resource extraction such as these commonly displaced and harmed indigenous communities living in and surrounding these locations and would not be given a share of the profits despite it being land they already resided. Economic and industrial development, as well as the displacement of indigenous communities, seen through BC’s gold rush are themes highlighted in this image.

Unknown

Ministry of the Provincial Secretary and Travel Industry. Film and Photographic Branch, BC Archives

http://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mining-dredge-at-barkerville

1958

Sebastian Jones

Ministry of the Provincial Secretary and Travel Industry. Film and Photographic Branch, BC Archives
Item I-27182 – Mining Dredge at Barkerville
http://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mining-dredge-at-barkerville

N/A

Visual - photgraph

20th century British Columbia