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Cariboo Road at Yale |
It stretched all the way from Fort Yale up to Barkerville, built entirely by hand, pick and shovel, during the years of 1862 to 1864.
They built bridges and blasted out footings for the
road to go through the side of hills, alongside the Fraser and Thompson
Rivers and beyond. Many enterprising contractors saw profit in both the building of the road, as well as its future use. In fact, construction was financed by large cash subsidies to the builders, who were, upon completion, permitted to charge a toll from travellers for the next five years.
However, not all of these commercial ventures went smoothly. The initial payments from the government were often slow, forcing some contractors to put up their own money, and many men in the road crews were eventually lured away to the goldfields by tales of rich gold strikes being made by others.
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The Last of the Camels from the Cariboo Road |
But it was truly the Cariboo Wagon Road that allowed the interior
of what is now British Columbia to be populated, and allowed many people to bring
services to these remote areas and to the miners that were working there.