TheOld Cariboo Road is a reference to the original wagon road to the Cariboo gold fields in what is now theCanadian province ofBritish Columbia. It should not be confused with theCariboo Road, which was built slightly later and used a different route.
It was built fromLillooet toAlexandria, beginning in 1859, and was a precursor to the slightly laterCariboo Wagon Road that was built fromYale viaCache Creek-Ashcroft. Access to the start of the road at Lillooet was made by theDouglas Road or Lakes Route fromPort Douglas, at the head of Harrison Lake.
It is the mileages from Lillooet on the Old Cariboo Road, properly known as the Lillooet-Alexandria Road, that the "road house" placenames of British Columbia, such as100 Mile House, are measured. The road was a toll-route and built by private contractorGustavus Blin-Wright, a prominent British-Swedish entrepreneur in colonial British Columbia who also contracted to build roads and provide steamer services in the Kootenay region. Blin-Wright also operated the steamer which connected the end of the road at Alexandria withQuesnel (then Quesnellemouthe).
When the Cariboo Road proper was built, it converged with the existing route of the Old Cariboo Road atClinton, and followed the earlier road to Alexandria, but was extended up the Fraser from there to Quesnel (thereby eliminating the need for steamer travel on that stretch of the upper Fraser) and completed eastward from there toBarkerville.
It was along this route that an attempt was made to useBactrian camels purchased from theU.S. Camel Corps for freight, and also a tractor-style Thomson Road Steamer known as a "road train", one of the earliest motorized vehicles.
From Wallula Gap on the Columbia River, the Old Cariboo Trail was built over the route of theHudson's Bay Brigade Trail, which began atFort Okanagan, near theWallula Gap area on theColumbia River and passed north through EasternWashington along the Columbia River to theOkanogan River and north intoBritish Columbia.
Hudson's Bay Company fur traders brigades followed this route up until 1847, when the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew from the Northwest. Cattle drives were common along this trail to supply the gold miners, who arrived in British Columbia in the late 1850s.[1]
InWashington Territory a wagon road fromWallula (Fort Nez Percés nearWalla Walla) to the gold mining regions of British Columbia was known as the "Cariboo Trail" or the "Wallula-Okanogan Road". Connecting to theOregon Trail at Wallula, it ran north across Quincy Flats pastMoses Lake, then crossed the lowerGrand Coulee at present dayCoulee City. From there it turned north and crossed theWaterville Plateau to reach the Columbia River nearFort Okanogan. From there it followed the valley of theOkanagan River into Canada, connecting with theOkanagan Trail.[1] The section known in Canada as the Cariboo Trail departed from the northernmost of the Okanagan Trail routes near today'sSavona to head up theDeadman River towards the initial strikes nearLikely andHorsefly, British Columbia.
The Old Cariboo Road started at Lillooet (or 0 Mile House) where it directly went to Alexandria. From there a steamboat service was provided to Quesnellemouthe (now Quesnel) where it ended. A trail from there then went east to Barkerville where gold was discovered. From Lillooet there was a trail that went south to Lytton. This was part of the Old Cariboo Road that avoided the Fraser Canyon. By 1864 a new Cariboo road was built, which took a different route, although from Clinton to Alexandria much of the Old Cariboo Road was used for the newer Cariboo Road.