Day 4 – Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Barkerville
Lacking head-to-toe netting, I instead started out the day by having Jeff blast all exposed skin with Off!, save for my face. Normally you might expect this is where I tell you about all the bites I got on my face, but no, I did not get any additional face bites.
I did, however, get new bites near my right elbow and one on the back of my neck, thus proving the Off! to be more On! when it came to repelling insects. In its defense, I could have bitten many more times without being sprayed first. Also, I never re-applied the Off! Basically it was all my fault.
But enough about bugs. Today was our first full day in Barkerville and we more or less winged it, starting off by walking up the Main Street before taking part in a 70 minute walking tour of the city that ends near the Chinatown area (there’s a separate tour for that which we’ll check out tomorrow).
The guide was a woman in character as a local from 1863, though the fourth wall was broken liberally in order to offer comparisons on Barkerville then vs. now. Some of the interesting tidbits:
- The inevitable great fire that destroyed the town in 1868 has no definitive source, but it’s rumoured that a scuffle between a would-be assaulter and a dancing girl in the back of a saloon resulted in a stovepipe being tipped over, sending sparks up to the canvas ceiling, which immediately caught fire. The tinder-dry roof burst into flame, sending embers across the narrow street, instantly putting the blaze on both sides of the main drag. In less than two hours all but a few buildings in the town burned to the ground.
- The fire gave the boomtown a chance to impose some order on the reconstruction. The main drag was made twice as wide, buildings had space between them to prevent easy spread of fire, and, of course, they started an official fire brigade.
- Said fire brigade was in the first floor of a building that also housed the new theatre. The ground floor flooded and was cut away, reducing the building to a single floor and today the Theater Royal stands alone.
- Flooding was due to the hills around the town being stripped of trees, leading to mine tailings, soil and everything else sliding down the hills, clogging the streets and leading to the river overflowing. This led to the other major change in the town’s reconstruction. Most buildings and the boardwalks are raised above ground level, allowing flood waters to pass beneath. This has worked well, even as the ground the town is built on continues to sink. Apparently you need to dig about 50 feet down near the entrance of the town to find the ashes from the fire of 1868.
- Barkerville had a second gold rush in 1930, which I did not know.
The weather was quite nice at the start of the tour, sunny and warm enough that I could feel the burn starting on my arms. The weather in this area is fickle, though, so while I first regretted bringing my hoodie, I was wearing it by mid-afternoon when a brief shower swept through. Overall it was fine for touring the town and preferable to 30 Celsius, like they’re getting out east currently.
We also checked out a couple of shows covering operation of water wheels and other mining technology, both handled by a pair of very funny performers. I did not get pictures of these shows because I was spending my time either watching the show or swatting away the giant bee-like insects that interpret Off! as On!
I did get a couple of pictures of the Main Street, looking to the west (with our tour guide on the boardwalk) and looking east, back toward one of the churches near the entrance.
There is a stage coach ride that circles the town, which we declined to take part in, but the street had regular deposits left by its horse-powered engines. I did not take any pictures of this.
This shot is from the second floor of one of the buildings in Chinatown. I thought it would look more dramatic, but in hindsight, two floors isn’t much more than you’d seen someone fall in a saloon fight.
At several points during the day the amount of cottonwood seeds in the air resembled a snowstorm, something our first tour guide noted. Several of them, including the one hosting the tale of Billy Barker, ingested and briefly choked on the things. It was kind of weird.
We had a midday snack in a local bakery—there are multiple functioning businesses in the town, mostly selling food, but also offering clothing and other goods—and the turnovers we had were flaky, buttery and yummy. We spent the rest of the afternoon working them off.
We ended the day at Barkerville around 3:30 p.m. by stopping at another bakery, this time for some fudge, because fudge is the best thing ever. I got double chocolate and it came in an adorably small brown paper bag. I ate it and it was the best thing ever. The fudge, not the bag.
We wrapped up in the gift shop, looking over the supply of gifts both practical and gaudy, but held off making any purchases until tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have four tours we’re going to check out, covering early justice, the cemetery, Chinatown and more. Then we buy tacky gifts.
UPDATE: After returning from Barkerville, Jeff had an idea. His idea was to have a nap, so he did.
After the nap we had another meal worthy of home cooking. Jeff asked for a picture, so here it is in full three-dimensional color:
We spent the evening in mellow mode, doing a casual circuit around the campsite, checking out the sunset (not very spectacular tonight) and of course, there was a fire. The god rays in this shot were not created in post-processing. These are genuine unsimulated effects, generated by a lot of smoke before we had a lot of fire.
And then we had fire.
And then we had hot chocolate and turned in for the night.
Mosquito bite update: One new bite near the base of my right thumb and some others, but there are so many now I’ve lost track of it.
