Gold Below the Canyon

About the Book

William (Billy) Barker is dying from terminal cancer of the jaw. Lying on his death bed he recalls his life, his family in March, Cambridgeshire, England, and his life as a canal man. Billy marries a widow with three children, who cheats on him. A daughter, Emma Eliza is born. The building of the railways fazes out the canal business, and Billy leaves home for New York.

There he works on the building of railroads until the start of the California gold rush. Waiting for the chuck wagon to feed them Billy starts chewing tobacco. While seeking passage to San Francisco Billy meets John Butson, a young Cornish adventurer who becomes a lifelong friend. At San Francisco these two team up with Joseph Hernandes, a Mexican gold miner who has a donkey. The Mexican teaches them to pan for gold. They travel inland and eventually find gold.

Billy takes a trip back to England, and finds that both his wife and his mother have died, and his only child, Emma, is living in a poor house. Billy returns to California and works for some time with John Butson in a hard rock gold mine near West Point, California. When the gold runs out Billy and John leave for Fraser's River in British Columbia. Eventually they reach Lillooet, where they stake claims with other miners on Canada Bar.

Unfortunately political interference stops them from mining, and Billy's partners desert him. Billy travels to Williams Creek, in the Cariboo, where he stakes claims on the lower end of the creek. While other miners are finding lots of gold, Billy's claims are disappointing. Ned Stout, who has claims on a branch of Williams Creek, persuades Billy to stake below the canyon on Williams Creek. At that time, regulations were such that miners were not allowed to have more than one claim on a creek, so Billy had to give up his first claim.

As it happened that claim, when it came in, proved to be the richest on the creek. Billy and his partners dug two shafts below the canyon, and almost ran out of money before fabulous amounts of gold were reached. Fortunately Billy was able to get a loan from Judge Begbie, which enabled him and his partners to reach pay dirt. Billy is a fabulously rich man, and while spending the winter in Victoria he meets and marries an English woman, Elizabeth Collyer.

Sadly Eliza only lives for two years, and Billy returns to mining in several areas of the Cariboo, including the Horsefly valley. Billy loses his fortune in random lending, and unprofitable business dealings. He ends up in the Old Man's Home in Victoria, where he dies in 1894.

About the Author

Branwen Patenaude was born in Shanghai, China, the only daughter of a Welsh civil engineer and an English girl, Christine Carpenter, secretary to the British Vice Consul in Shanghai.