Ho! For the Leech River - The Bubble Bursts

(Conclusion)

Finally! We come to the end of the saga of the Leech River gold rush.

A gold “rush” that continues to this day albeit on a smaller, much quieter and more recreational level than it was for the hopeful miners of 1864 and the Victoria merchants who desperately tried to profit from them.

There was gold in the Leech River: gold as rich as 22 carats. But it came from afar, carried by glaciers and river flow until it became trapped in the Leech’s bed and boulders. Some could be panned, some could be sluiced and recovered with rockers all brutally hard work and not for the faint of heart.

But it was exciting while it lasted!

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PHOTO: What was left of the “government office” (Gold Commissioner’s cabin) in the 1920’s. —BC Archives