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| Sophia Cameron |
Sophia Cameron was placed in a tin casket temporarily buried under a deserted cabin, after a funeral attended by all 90 miners who were wintering in the Cariboo. Her husband mourned but kept working the claim - what else was there to do? His promise weighed on his mind. Soon after striking it rich, he disinterred the coffin and, in the words of his partner and close friend Robert Stevenson,
"A little after daylight on the last day of January 1863, we left Richfield with the coffin bound in strong canvas and strapped firmly to a toboggan and fifty pounds of gold dust tied on the top of the coffin, which made it top heavy, but we had no other place to put it."Cameron, Stevenson, and some helpers travelled on snowshoes, by horse, and by steamer for 600 miles. They climbed mountains, suffered through temperatures of -40 Fahrenheit, and made their way through communities devastated by smallpox. When they finally reached Victoria on March 7th, Cameron had the coffin filled with alcohol in order preserve his wife's body. Then he arranged a second funeral, buried her in Victoria, and headed back to the Cariboo to work his claim some more.
In November he disinterred
the coffin a second time and headed for Ontario, where Sophia Cameron
received her third and final funeral just after Christmas - more than a year
after her death. Was this the end of her story? No - the rumour spread
that the coffin didn't hold Sophia Cameron, it held gold instead. So a few
years later her husband had the coffin raised and opened. When the alcohol
spilled out her family and friends recognized her immediately. Sophia
Cameron was then buried for the last time, this time to rest in peace.
