The Miner’s Angel

This week is the sad story of Belle Castle, a fallen angel of the Cariboo.

Only after I’d committed to this schedule did I realize I had the perfect makings for a “Good, Bad and Ugly” series with a difference—women!

All three ladies had a strong Cariboo connection, all three fit the Spaghetti western prototype that made the good, the bad and ugly a cliche—but now it’s too late for me to correct the sequence. What to do?

The solution: It is what it is. For this week, “The Bad.” Next week, “The Good.” Then, two weeks from now, “The Ugly.”

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PHOTO: There weren’t very women in the Cariboo gold fields in the early days other than dance hall—hurdy gurdy—girls. Lonely miners such as these often spent small fortunes to whirl them around a saloon dance floor. —BC Archives