Ranch History
In 1861 and early 1862 the focus of the Cariboo Gold Rush was moving from Keithly Creek and Antler to Richfield and the soon to be named towns of Barkerville and Camerontown. The supply route for this new community still came from the south, through Quesnelle Forks and was based on pack trains, often mules. The Harrison Lake – Lillooet road had been pushed through by the end of 1861 and though cumbersome (requiring frequent unpacking and packing to take the lake steamers) it did provide a safer access to the interior of the new colony of British Columbia and the gold fields. Other packers were starting from Yale, the end of navigation on the Fraser River, and working over to the east to connect with the existing fur brigade trails and use them to bring supplies to the growing mining communities.
The real push for a trail from Quesnelle Mouth was not to get to the Richfield area but to get the easiest access to the almost equally valuable (though often overlooked by history) gold strikes along Lightning Creek and its tributaries. Where Van Winkle creek joined Lightning creek another one of those instant towns was being born and it required supplies.
The local gold commissioner, Thomas Elwyn, contracted a Mr. Ryse to construct a four foot wide pack trail from Quesnelle Mouth to the new settlement of Van Winkle. Ryse had used the route already six times in 1860 and likely so had many other packers but all were anxious to have a better trail which Ryse delivered by June 19 1862 eight foot wide and with 6 foot wide bridges. Though the documents get a bit tricky George M. Cox had recorded a preemption on 160 or possibly 320 acres of land around the junction of Lightning Creek and Swift River as of June 14, 1862. One month later three men: Dudley C. Moreland, James C. Wade and the same George M. Cox recorded preemption claims on lots 437 and 438 Cariboo District which covered substantially the same ground as the earlier preemption. It may be that the earlier preemption was not recognized because of a technicality (all were Americans and in order to claim land had to pledge allegiance to the crown) but by July 23 and 24 of 1862 the land was in their hands (referred to from now on as Wade’s Cottonwood Ranch).
It became one of the key stopping places for all the mines in the region not just Van Winkle. It was the closest arable land to the gold fields and as the Cariboo Wagon road worked north and the steamers started shipping to Quesnelle Mouth it became the quickest way into Barkerville and Richfield. G.B. Wright’s wagon road into Cottonwood, completed in September of 1864, finally meant that the wagons could get that far but for almost another year the packers were still the key link, taking the supplies in the last 25 miles or so to Barkerville.
There was a significant controversy involving Judge Begbie and G. M. Cox’s acquisition of Lot 438 with Judge Begbie making the final decision that Cox could keep the preemption. Whether the Judge provided a favorable judgement to Cox in return for some 22 acres of land in the same area is still a question historians struggle with. What matters however is that by August of 1862 Magistrate O’Reilly recorded that there were several log buildings on the site which included stores and a butcher shop. In addition the group had gone ahead on their own and built a bridge over the Swift River. The Swift River is really only fordable during winter and mid-summer when the water is low. In the spring and fall it is fast and treacherous, so the bridge was ideally suited to make packer’s lives easier as long as they were willing to pay the toll to get across (from the Wade daybooks retained by John Boyd it is difficult to figure out what the toll charge actually was but something like $.50 to $.75 per animal per crossing).
As plans began to be made for the final push to put a wagon road all the way into Barkerville it became clear that the site of Wade's Cottonwood Ranch would suffer in two ways: first the bridge to be built would be closer towards Quesnelle Mouth where the river was narrower and second that the wagon road would in fact be constructed on the north of Lightning creek (Ryse’s trail ran along the south of the creek right through Wade’s ranch). As a result the three partners soon sold off their shares in the ranch to Matthew Corothers of Williams Creek and James Spencer. Next Charles Beath bought up all the interest in the ranch from the various owners. As of May 30 1864 Beath was in full control of the ranch with John Boyd as his junior partner (apparently Boyd did not put up any money towards the purchase) and manager of the ranch (we see in the Wade daybooks the change in handwriting on May 30 as John Boyd assumes control).
The fact that the wagon road was going to be built several miles from the current operation must have disturbed the new owners but they carried on a thriving business as long as the packers were the last step in the transportation system to reach Barkerville. As that began to wind down we see a major increase in sales of farm good and vegetables to other road houses, and businesses in VanWinkle, Stanley and Barkerville. However it was clear that they had to be in the roadhouse business as well and by 1865 they opened up Coldspring House where the wagon road crossed Coldspring Creek. The major advantage that the Boyd and Heath partnership maintained was the existing agricultural capacity of the old Wade Cottonwood ranch. Whereas Pine Grove House and Beaver Pass House were purely road house operations with little available land, Boyd’s operation (Boyd had bought out Heath by 1868) was based on a well managed supply of farm goods and vegetables. As can be seen in the further history of Coldspring House John Boyd used this advantage to slowly take over the two closer houses (Pine Grove and Cottonwood) to consolidate his road house business, but it was the successful farming that allowed him to ride through the various ups and downs of the Cariboo economy over the next four decades.
