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THE STORY
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THE ‘FACTS’
Robert Stevenson, John Cameron’s partner, accompanied him on the epic journey to return Sophia’s body to her home in Glengarry County. The ‘facts’ of this story are drawn from Stevenson’s extensive account of his partnership and friendship with John and Sophia; The Promise: Love, Loyalty and the Lure of Gold: The Story of ‘Cariboo’ Cameron, an engrossing history written from the point of view of Stevenson by Bill Gallaher and published by Touch Wood Editions; notes left by the late Duncan Cameron; and conversations with descendants of Duncan and John ‘Cariboo’ Cameron. Duncan Cameron always insisted Robert Stevenson was given far too much credit in the partnership.
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Mr. John A. Cameron (seated)
and Mr. Robert Stevenson
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Mrs. John A. Cameron
(nee Margaret Sophia Groves)
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Images D-07952 and A-01157 courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives.
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QUOTATION FROM
THE PROMISE BY BILL GALLAHER
As Sophia Cameron, known as ‘the Beauty of Barkerville’, lay dying in 1862, she begged her husband to take her home to Eastern Canada, and John ‘Cariboo’ Cameron made that promise.
This is the story of a great love, the richest gold strike on Williams Creek and the epic struggle to take Sophia’s body from BC’s frozen goldfields to a tree-shaded cemetery near Cornwall, Ontario.
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Gallaher, Bill. The Promise: Love, Loyalty and the Lure of Gold: The Story of ‘Cariboo’ Cameron.
Touch Wood Editions, Horsdal & Schubart Publishers Ltd., Victoria, BC, Canada, 2001.
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BARKERVILLE
The Cariboo region of British Columbia - which Barkerville is a part of - has a history that was profoundly shaped by gold. Today, the town of Barkerville stands a testament to this golden history, but there were also many other gold mining ‘boom towns’ that sprung up around the same time. In the hills and forests of the region one can find remnants of the towns of Stanley, Camerontown, Antler City, Richfield, Keithly Creek, and more.
In the mid-1800s, gold finds in the Western United States caused many young men from around the world to seek their riches in a number of American goldfields. Early gold rushes brought miners to California, but by the mid-1850s, the goldfields there were largely ‘played out.’ In 1858, stories began to surface of ‘easy gold’ on Fraser’s River north of the border. Thousands of men, many without even knowing what they were looking for or where they were going, headed north to seek their fortunes in the British territory that is now British Columbia. It was welcome news for the many miners who had arrived in California only to find there was little left for them there. There are stories of entire towns in California emptying in a single day as news of the ‘New North-West’ gold rush reached the American goldfields. Eventually, prospectors made their way to the hills that surround Barkerville.
www.barkerville.ca
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