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Gold! Gold! Gold! Say these words or even whisper them and you can get a crowd of people on their feet shouting and stomping in seconds. This is a story of gold and how it formed a town and community called Wells. When the words Gold Rush and Cariboo are spoken, most people think of Barkerville and it's mining for gold of the late nineteenth century. But you are about to learn about another important gold rush in the Cariboo.
The town of Wells, like it's famous neighbour Barkerville, was built around the discovery of gold. In the late 1920's, long after the height of the first Cariboo Gold Rush had died down, a man named Fred Wells came to the Cariboo prospecting for his riches. Fred found gold inside Cow Mountain at the base of Wells, and helped form one of two large companies and the hard rock mining gold rush in Wells British Columbia. Over a 34 year period one of the companies, the Cariboo Gold Quartz took over thirty one MILLION dollars of gold out of the ground!
This gold rush was significant for a number of reasons, including the boost to the economy of British Columbia during a time when the rest of the province and country was in a major depression, the beginning of the hard rock mining process as a vital industry in B.C., and the formation of the unique town and community of Wells.
Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to go forward into the next section or the side bar to tour the site to learn more about Wells and it's unique history.
Begin learning in our mining section or find out what was in Wells before the big mining boom and what happened to Wells after the mines closed it's doors.
You can always head back to HOME using the nugget at the bottom of each page and select another area to explore. If you are an educator you might want to start in our educators corner...
Student's can start here!
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Last updated:September 8, 2000