Ten historic Gold Rush Trail sings are being presented to communities, museums, and founding partners by the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association (CCCTA) and the Gold Rush Trail Management Committee.
CCCTA CEO Amy Thacker said they’re excited to be able to get some of these historic artifacts back into our communities.
“The decision came about several years,” she said.
“In 2015, the Gold Rush Trail Management Committee worked with communities and partners along the corridor to do a brand refresh and that was precipitated on aligning this corridor with the new Destination Britsh Columbia Super Natural BC brand. So the corridor became the first aligned brand in the province with that provincial brand working together, but we didn’t want to lose the history and the hard work of those communities and founding partners in that and that was the impetus behind seeing if we could keep some of these signs to be preserved in our museums for years to come.”
The ten signs were established in the early to mid-80s in partnership between a group of community members and the provincial government.
Receiving signs are the local museums in Lillooet, Clinton, Likely, Williams Lake, Ashcroft, and Lytton.
The 108 Mile Heritage Site, Barkerville Historic Town, Yale Historic Site, and Ron Paull of Quesnel who was one of the founding members that helped create the sign’s design will also be presented with one.
“The Gold Rush Trail Management Committee looked at places that were accessible to the public and involved in gold rush history,” Thacker said.
“So somewhere that it would make sense to add to their collection along the trail and have context, and it was a very hard decision because there was only ten. But the committee felt that those ten places were a fitting preservation and resting place for the signs to be shared with the public.”
The Gold Rush Trail begins at the mouth of the Fraser River in New Westminster and winds its way north to Barkerville Historic Town & Park, following the traditional Indigenous peoples’ trading routes utilized during the fur trade and expanded during the gold rushes of 1858-1862.