Big Bend Travel

0051.0055

THE BIG BEND. – The news which we publish to-day from Big Bend is the most cheering of any intelligence yet received in the colony, not even excepting the announcement of the discovery of the Cariboo. It is cheering, not so much because it has enabled a certain number of miners to take out large amounts of gold, but because it discloses to us the fact that the most extensive as well as least expensive mines yet opened out in British Columbia, or probably in any country north of California, are now discovered. So far as is yet known the gold region extends over a hundred miles; the sinking is shallow; the ground rich; and the mines comparatively easily reached. Here are facts that ought, under proper management, to attract the largest population that has yet visited the neighboring colony. From all the accounts we have received, and they are almost strangely unanimous, there is but one conclusion to come to, and that is that the greatest gold mining region in any country on the Pacific has been discovered. This is no idle assertion. If we take the statements of those men who have had practical mining experience at Big Bend, we find that the average yield of the gold fields when opened is computed at from half an ounce to four ounces a day per hand. It is needless to say that no gold mining country in the world can equal this. California nor Australia, nor Montana nor Idaho, cannot pretend to a comparison. Let us, therefore, make the most of our position. Let us take a leaf from our American neighbors and advertise our mineral wealth. Portland got the lion’s share, and still gets it, of all the traffic north of her State. When she had the longest route to the Rock Creek, the Kootenay and even the Big Bend, she managed to secure nearly all the travel and all the traffic that went to those places. At present our advantages over Oregon in competition for supplying any mining region in British Columbia are beyond question; and yet the enterprise of our neighbors is gradually counterbalancing this good fortune. As we informed our readers a few days ago, a steamer is built and no doubt now running between Colville and within thirty miles of French Creek. This brings Walla Walla within pretty easy distance of the new gold fields, and will no doubt give the Oregon people a monopoly of the traffic, if a steamer is not placed on the Shuswap and Kamloops lakes by April next. If this latter be done; if Mr. Wright who, we believe, has obtained the exclusive privilege of putting on a steamer, can manage to run his boat early in the spring, we shall have all the travel; and it will be immense, if the two Governments only see that the advantages of our position as well as the richness and inexpensive character of our new mines, are laid properly before the California public. If we can show to the California miner that for a reasonably small amount he can reach Victoria and from thence to the gold fields in nine or ten days, and that these gold fields when reached will afford him the opportunity of making from eight to sixty dollars a day, we shall have a large and energetic population travelling through this city as soon as spring sets in. And we can show all this. With direct steam communication, we bring the miner from San Francisco in four days; five or six more will then take him to Carnes and French creeks, where, unless all the narratives from the energetic class of men who have been working there this summer are false, he will be able to make more money, with a less expenditure, than in any other gold region in the world. Let us not, therefore, lose sight of the position in which we stand. From Walla Walla to Colville is a distance of two hundred and fifty miles of a very bad country. Fifty miles of the way is in fact so bad that pack animals cannot attempt to cross it until the middle of May. Then when we come to the boat travel; out of the two hundred and fifty miles on the Columbia River, seventy-five are full of navigable difficulties. Counting the distance from where the steamer lands the passenger to the mines, the navigable reach on the Columbia River, and the road from Colville to Walla Walla, we have the total distance about five hundred and thirty miles, nearly three hundred of which is land travel. Now if we take the Fraser river and set Yale against Walla Walla, we have to Kamloops lake one hundred and fourteen miles of land travel; then a navigable stretch of one hundred and thirty miles to the end of Shuswap lake; and from thence to the mines about seventy miles, giving altogether a distance of three hundred and thirty-four, or nearly two hundred miles less than the Colville route. When to this we add the very significant advantage of being able to reach the mines, which it is said can be worked in March, nearly two months earlier in the year than can be done on the Oregon route, we may safely calculate on the whole of the trade, if we make the proper exertions.

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Kootenay Gold Report

0051.0002

Good News From Kootenais

0051.0003

The Kootenais Mines

0051.0004

The Kootenais Mines

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The New Mining Region

0051.0006

First Party for Kootanais

0051.0007

News from the Kootenais and Shuswap Mines

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The Kootanais Mines

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Kootanais Mines

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The Kootanais Mines

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Kootanais Mine Reports

0051.0012

Official Report On Kootenay

Internal ID:	0051.0055
Medium:	Newspaper
Date:	December 4th 1865
Collection:	0051
People:	Wright
Publisher:	Victoria Daily Colonist
Pages:	2

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Big Bend Travel

Internal ID:	0051.0055
Medium:	Newspaper
Date:	December 4th 1865

Description:

Article stating Big Bend to be the most extensive, as well as least expensive mines yet opened in BC. Editor is also trying to entice miners to travel to mining area through BC rather than the US, trying to get more commerce for this province.