Introduction

The Gold Rush

Aboriginal Culture

Chief Isidore

The Gold Rush

Wild Horse Creek, BCARS (A-07108)

In the summer of 1863 a group of 3 men were prospecting for gold in the East Kootenay. They were running very low on supplies so they stopped to camp for the night beside a creek. To their great surprise they stumbled upon gold! Within just a few short hours they found $700 in pumpkinseed gold. Today that much gold would be worth $7000.

As they were looking for gold a wild black stallion came towards them and began to circle the group, so they named the creek Wild Horse Creek. It is about 12 miles from where Cranbrook is today and just east of Fort Steele.

Winter was coming soon so the prospectors decided to head home to Missoula, Montana and Walla Walla, Washington. They would come back again in the early spring when the snow was beginning to melt. On their way home to the United States they stopped and talked to a man named John Linklater.

Mr. Linklater was in charge of the Hudson’s Bay post on Tobacco Plains called Fort Kootenai. This is very close to the American and Canadian border by Rooseville. The group of partners sold Mr. Linklater $150 of the gold they had discovered. They probably asked Mr. Linklater not to tell anyone where the gold came from, but news of the discovery quickly spread!

Introduction		Fisherville Grows