Wells and Barkerville, British Columbia, only five miles apart, were gold mining bonanza towns during the Cariboo gold rush. (Barkerville, c. 1890 and Wells c. 1930), but the similarity between the two towns ends here, because the character and evolution of the two towns was diametrically different.

Barkerville grew quickly and hard when gold was discovered in 1862 and adventurers poured in from around the globe to stake claims. Men came to Barkerville to get rich quickly and leave. There was no such thing as a town plan, and Barkerville was a confusion of cabins, saloons and outfitters stores, hotels, brothels and churches, "all side by side in a happy gimcrack." The outlying areas, creeks and valleys, were soon scarred and littered by the building paraphernalia that went with small-time gold-panning operations.

The town of Wells was Barkerville's less lively neighbour. Brash and rollicking Barkerville was the typical goldrush town, but Wells was built to be permanent; a company town, and part of the second generation of resource extraction industry towns in the province. Company towns were typically designed and built by a big corporate interest wanting to develop natural resources on a large scale in a remote geographic area. Usually it was a single natural resource which was exported raw, generally logging or mining in B.C., and the company town's livelihood was entirely divested and dependent on the single industry.

"B.C. Archives Photo Wells Townsite" I_27127

Wells was planned and built by the company to suit the company and the buildings were constructed in a hierarchy. This meant houses were built for the workers to live-in while they were employed at the gold mine. Single men lived in a bunkhouse, white collar workers had better homes with luxuries like bathrooms, and laborers with families had less fancy houses with outhouses.

Workers did not owne their own house but rented them from the company. The company built and owned a store where people bought food and supplies. Wells encouraged free enterprise and a few smaller, independent businesses such as the Wells Hotel and the Sunset Theatre were built.

The Strike of '37 shut down the mine for months, and took place in the middle of the construction of the Wells Community Hall. The strike in Wells is part of the history of labour unrest in the province that's characterized by rigid divisions between the workers and the status quo.