British Columbia in the second half of the nineteenth century is defined by her gold rushes. Various prospectors, miners, entrepreneurs, and other settlers descended upon BC in waves, and the documents they’ve left behind are as varied as they were.

This broadsheet, The Frazer River Thermometer, both offers advice and gently ribs the potential prospector.

One of these men is not dressed appropriately for the job… (from the Jane Eva Denison fonds, album “Caravaning to the land of golden twilight”)

And this monograph is too good (and a good length for a blog post), so we present the entire thing:

Map of the Cariboo and Omineca gold fields, and the routes thereto, compiled from reliable authorities ,W.D. Patterson

The information deemed necessary seems quite slim: a helpful page of figures, a map, and some adverts for underclothing.

There are quite a few books concerning the gold rush within the collection, especially from the BC Historical Books Collection. This one is a fictional take on the Cariboo rush: (click through for the entire monograph!)

Have you ever searched for gold-rush era documents within Open Collections? Is there anything we can help you find?