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Trenholm 1
The British Columbia Gold Rush
David Trenholm November 27
th
, 2006HIST 2773 B1Dr. Stephen Henderson
 
Trenholm 2The British Columbia Gold Rush is remembered today as a dynamic part of the province’s history—it was an era of change, development and indeed, an era that hadcontributed to the province’s cultural identity. The success of the gold rush of the 1850swas quite insignificant compared to the earlier gold rush that had occurred in California
1
, but that did not dissuade large droves of miners to head north to claim a small measure of gold for their own. Although there was indeed gold, and some miners had walked awaywith a small fortune of it, many were not so lucky and had ended up poor, starving and broken. The firsthand accounts of Dr. Carl Friesach and Charles Major describe the poor conditions and marginal success of the gold miners, and their experiences contribute to a better understanding of the lifestyles of those involved. The secondary sources includedin J.M. Bumsted and Len Kuffert’s Interpreting Canada’s Past provide interestingmaterial that contrast Friesach and Major’s experiences, serving to illuminate the goldrush from a personal perspective, and that of a historian’s.The firsthand accounts written by Dr. Carl Friesach and Charles Major offer adegree of clarity to the British Columbia gold rush. Dated 1858, Friesach’s letter detailshis journey through Fort Hope via boat to Fort Yale.
2
 According to Friesach, travel by hisway was uncomfortable and dirty, as there were no cabins, mattresses and very little blankets. The floor had a fine layer of coal dust, and it was difficult to remain clean.
3
Friesach and his party, on arriving at Fort Hope, met with Governor Douglas (who had been staying there at the time), and received a letter of recommendation for the officer 
1
J. M. Bumsted and Ken Kuffert, eds.,
 Interpreting Canada's Past. Vol. 1: A Pre-Confederation Reader 
,3rd ed. (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 277.
2
Carl Friesach,
 Ein Ausflug nach Britisch-Columbien im Jahre 1958,
trans. And reprinted by Robie L. Reidin ‘Two Narratives of the Fraser River Gold-Rush’,
 British Columbia Historical Quarterly 5 (1941):
 pp.278.
3
Friesach, 278-9.
 
Trenholm 3commanding Fort Yale, their next destination.
4
Friesach’s narrative here yields somevaluable information—Fort Yale, according Friesach, is filled with nearly three thousandinhabitants; Americans, Germans, French, Chinese, Italians, Spaniards and Poles, astaggering diversity.
5
Friesach even describes in the components of the miner’s sluice,and how effective it could be in extracting gold from the soil—indeed, Friesach writesthat while some claim to harvest roughly $30 of gold per day, others barely manage $4 to$5.
6
“There is hardly a more hazardous form of work,” Friesach claims, “The test of the pan often gives a good result when the soil is later on found to be hardly worthworking…”
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While Friesach does touch on the sourer aspects of the gold rush, CharlesMajor narrows in on and exclusively expounds on the harsher aspects of gold mining inBritish Columbia. In his letter to the
 Daily Globe
in Toronto, Charles Major describes theexhausting working conditions of British Columbia gold mining, “…we have workedfrom half-past two and three o’clock in the morning till nine and ten o’clock at night…and lived on beans!”
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It is quite obvious that Charles Major’s experience in the BritishColumbia gold rush was quite different than Friesach’s. While Friesach described a yieldof $4-$5 a day in gold being a poor day at the mines, Major writes, “…but when youwash up at night, you may realize 50 cents, perhaps $1”.
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Major also claims that only onein one thousand miners were doing well in the gold rush, which is not a fantastic figure
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 —it would be interesting to know, however, how Major had come to such a number.
4
Carl Friesach,
 Ein Ausflug nach Britisch-Columbien im Jahre 1958,
trans. And reprinted by Robie L. Reidin ‘Two Narratives of the Fraser River Gold-Rush’,
 British Columbia Historical Quarterly 5 (1941):
 pp.279.
5
Friesach, 280.
6
Friesach, 281.
7
Friesach, 281.
8
Letter of Charles Major, 20 Sept. 1859, in
 Daily Globe,
Toronto, 2 January 1860, reprinted in Reid, ‘Two Narratives’, p. 282.
9
Major, 282.
10
Major, 283
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