The Cariboo Trail: A Chronicle of the Gold-fields of British Columbia

Agnes C. Laut’s The Cariboo Trail is a fascinating history of the Canadian gold rush that began in 1858. When, in early 1849, a group of ragged miners arrived in the sleepy town of Victoria from California, no one would have believed that a little over ten years later a gold rush would hit the Fraser River.

Between 1859 and 1871, thousands of miners and prospectors travelled north and east from the headwaters of the Fraser River, with the hopes of striking it rich. And many did—over the cour...