The People of the Cariboo Gold Rush
Alexander Caulfield Anderson
Alexander C. Anderson (1814-1884) had seen a lot of the world by the time
the gold rush started. Born in India, educated in England, he then went to
work for the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada (1831-1854). Anderson's great
achievement was finding a good trail to the Cariboo from the coast. He did
this by leading not one but three expeditions for the Hudson's Bay Company.
On the way he met "Blackeye" a First Nations man who gave important help by
guiding Anderson's party north to Kamloops. Did Anderson and Blackeye know
they were helping with the gold rush? No, Anderson did his exploring years
before anybody knew there was gold, in 1846 and 1847.
Anderson never did any gold prospecting but he was a big help to those who
did. When the gold rush started his good friend Governor James Douglas sent him back to the Cariboo to turn his route into a proper trail for the
miners - this became known as the Douglas Trail. After finishing that job,
Anderson went to work as the first Collector of Customs in Victoria, and in
his spare time he wrote and published a Hand-book and map to the gold region
of Frazer's and Thompson's rivers in 1858 to help the miners use his trail,
and included some "Chinook jargon" to help them communicate with the First
Nations people they would meet.
Anderson never stopped exploring. He died at the age of seventy, soon after
travelling as Inspector of Fisheries to find a site for a salmon hatchery on
the Fraser River.
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