Frontier Prospector. Born in Cambridgeshire, England. With all the excitement over the discovery of gold in California, he moved there to find his fortune in the late 1840s. He had little luck and with fellow miners decided to move to British Columbia, Canada. His party roamed from one mining camp to another, when they discovered gold in the Williams Creek area near Barkerville in 1862. Barker decided to go search for his own gold down river, close to Stouts Gulch and there he dug out about 60 ounces of gold. He filed a claim which turned out to be the richest in the area and a mining settlement soon set up around his claim. It was estimated he pulled out roughly 37,500 ounces of gold and to deal with the stress of having that much gold, it was said Barker smoked as much as 30 cigarettes a day.
Frontier Prospector. Born in Cambridgeshire, England. With all the excitement over the discovery of gold in California, he moved there to find his fortune in the late 1840s. He had little luck and with fellow miners decided to move to British Columbia, Canada. His party roamed from one mining camp to another, when they discovered gold in the Williams Creek area near Barkerville in 1862. Barker decided to go search for his own gold down river, close to Stouts Gulch and there he dug out about 60 ounces of gold. He filed a claim which turned out to be the richest in the area and a mining settlement soon set up around his claim. It was estimated he pulled out roughly 37,500 ounces of gold and to deal with the stress of having that much gold, it was said Barker smoked as much as 30 cigarettes a day.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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