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Published: September 19th 2007
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Totem Pole at 'Ksan Village
There are four Gitxsan Clans. This is the top of the entrance pole to the Wolf House. The other clans are the Frog, Fireweed, and Eagle. Sat Sept 8: Before leaving Hyder, Alaska we mailed postcards and other mail, to take advantage of the US postal system. The mail arrives and goes out on a float plane on Monday and Thursday, weather permitting. The weather was cloudy with misty rain as we drove inland. Today’s travels took us to Old Hazelton, British Columbia. We camped at ‘Ksan Campground which is adjacent to the
‘Ksan Historical Village and Museum. The village is a replica of the Gitxsan Village that stood at the confluence of the two rivers for centuries. We walked through the closed village in the evening. Tomorrow the light will be better for photos. There was a path to a scenic area through some woods and brush. We headed down towards the river. It was a narrow and windy path, so we couldn’t see very far ahead. We came upon what looked like bear scat on the path, but decided to keep going. It wasn’t too far until we found some more and at that point decided to not go any further down the path. The trash cans in the park are not bear proof, so we had been thinking that bears would not be in
'Ksan Village
The dwellings and totem poles are all made from red cedar which is abundant in this area. Red cedar was used to craft everyday articles such as canoes, rope, tools, mats, boxes, etc. The buildings are in the traditional style, but are on a smaller scale than in the past when they needed to house a large and thriving population. this area.
This is a beautiful campground. The pull-thru sites are plenty long and accommodate big rigs, so we have room to spare. We have a great view of the mountain range to our south and north. The sunset tonight was colorful. There are not a lot of trees, which is an advantage in being able to view the mountains. We’re now in an area with greater plant diversity and familiar plants. We were excited to see trees in the town with their red fall color ablaze, the trees in the woods are the evergreens and the autumn yellows and gold.
Sun Sept 9: Today we woke up under a cover of fog. Gradually as the fog thinned, our beautiful views slowly returned. Today’s weather was comfortably warm and the sky was blue and cloudless. The park manager came down to warn us that a black bear and her cub had been spotted in the brush by the campground.
Today we went back to the ‘Ksan Historical Village and toured the museum and took a guided tour of the village. It’s fascinating to see, and have explanations of their different artwork, buildings, clothing and traditions. Some of
'Ksan Village Wolf and Frog House
The pole on the left was raised to commenorate the opening of the village in 1970. On the top is a figure of the BC government representative.
The pole to the right of it is the entrance pole to the Wolf House. the totem poles were erected to commemorate specific occasions, such as the opening of the village. The figure at the bottom of the pole carries the most weight.
As we were walking back to the campground, there was a sound in the bushes that gave me alarm. I had forgotten about the bear, but that is what immediately came to mind. I felt a strong desire to pick up our pace and get out of there, but George reminded me that we don’t want to appear as fleeing prey, so we just kept walking, listening and looking.
Mon Sept 10: We packed up and got back on the road. We hadn’t planned to stay the extra day by Hazleton, but it’s nice to have the flexibility. The weather started as foggy, but became another beautiful day. In June our trip north had been in Alberta, so now we’re seeing new areas on our trip south. In June there had been flooding and we saw the evidence in Hazelton with water damage and sandbags. Now we’re camped in Beaumont Provincial Park on Fraser Lake and are near Vanderhoof. The campground managers said that it has been a very rainy
RV surrounded by mountains at 'Ksan Campground
This area was amazingly scenic. As you can see, at this time of year, there is not an abundance of campers. In other campgrounds, we have been the only camper for the last night of our stay. When we stay for a few days, there seems to be a decreasing number of campers, with more leaving each day than arriving. Also the license plates are mostly BC and Alberta, as they enjoy the fall weather and reclaim their area from the far-away tourists. summer. We’re feeling lucky that we chose the route we did, as we’ve been encountering better weather than if we had done it differently.
Today we started seeing the devastation being done by the pine beetles. Entire pine forests on mountains are brown and dead. We read an information panel about the problem which stated there are a number of factors that have lead to this epidemic. One factor is that the winters are milder and do not kill the beetle’s eggs, to the same degree a colder winter would.
We talked with some other campers who live in Alberta and she recommended Barkerville for an interesting side trip. We looked up the information about it and thought it did sound like it would fun, so that is our destination tomorrow.
Tues Sept 11: Today’s drive was increasingly through farm country. We say lots of fields with hay in various stages of baling. We were only seeing a few horses and no other animals, so we kept wondering who ate all this hay. Finally we started seeing more cattle and even a bison ranch.
Once we got to Quesnel we turned onto 26 and headed east for
Barkerville Main Street
This picture was taken in the Chinese section of town, which was the high section of town. It was also the entry into town when arriving by stage coach. about 50 miles. This heads into a more mountainous area and we had long uphill stretches of road. It was a scenic drive and we were excited to see a “regular” deer, which is something we haven’t seen in a long time. We’re camped in Wells for 2 nights and tomorrow we’ll go to Barkerville for the day.
Wed Sept 12: We’d heard that they had been having frost at night. Also that the days are cool enough we wouldn’t need to worry about the dogs being too warm in the RV while we were off doing things. They were right, this morning there was frost. It turns out that they only have 45 frost free days. Also we’re at an elevation of 4,200 feet, so that helps add to the cooler temps. Today was another blue sky and sunny day. In the shade it was quite cool, but great weather for visiting the historic town of Barkerville, BC.
We had enjoyed the town of Dawson City so much that I was concerned this would be a disappointment. Dawson City is a town where people actually live, work and shop.
Barkerville was a real town, but is now
Some of the cast of characters
The woman on the left was the school teacher and in the background is the school. The woman on the right was our initial tour guide on the city tour. an attraction that requires admission to get in to see. We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Barkerville and are going back tomorrow to see the things we didn’t have time to see today. Today’s full price admission permits us to go back tomorrow and re-enter for $2.
The employees all wear period clothing. When they are not giving their tour or historical interpretation, they may be seen strolling through the streets. The town is about a mile long and two streets wide with 125 heritage buildings. In 1862 Billy Barker discovered gold, which began the Caribou Gold Rush. Over 100,000 people traveled the Caribou Wagon Road between 1862 and 1870, to seek their fortunes in the goldfields and boomtown.
We started our day with “Judge Begbie” who was reminiscing about the early justice system of the Colony of British Columbia. We arrived a little late and were admonished for our tardiness. He had many colorful stories to tell of criminals and characters of the town.
Next we went to the schoolhouse. The schoolteacher explained about courtesies and etiquette of the day, before we could enter the schoolhouse. She had everyone line up, with girls on the right
More of the cast of characters
As our city tour progressed, we picked up other people that had their own view of the life in Barkerville. and boys on the left, according to height, and then we could enter in single-file. The boys had to remove their hats and the girls had to wear bonnets (which she had on hand). In 1872, a person who wanted to teach, had to take a test and be at least 16 years if female and 18 is male. They could get a conditional certification if they passed with 30%.
We took a guided walking tour of the town. It was conducted by three characters, a married woman of position, a ne’er-do-well, and a woman who owned a saloon. It was a lively tour with much humor and information. The tour ended near the Chinese section of town, where we picked up a different guide for an in depth tour of the Chinese community.
Thurs Sept 13: This morning we headed to Barkerville for breakfast at the Wake Up Jake restaurant. Yesterday we had lunch there and enjoyed a good meal of beef and vegetable stew at a reasonable price. Today’s breakfast was great with eggs, bacon and coffee. We headed to the demonstration of a Cornish water wheel being used in mining. The two historical interpreters/performers kept
us amused and provided us with interesting information. We later attended a session on the geology of the area and why and where the gold was located.
Fri Sept 14: We woke up to another heavy frost and packed up to continue our trip south. We camped at the Provincial campground Lac La Hache.
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