The Big Bend Gold Rush was a gold rush on the upper Columbia River in the Colony of British Columbia (now a Canadian province) in the mid-1860s.
The goldfield was located on tributaries of the Columbia in an area known as the Big Bend Country, named for the huge hairpin bend a few hundred miles long in eastern British Columbia formed by the Columbia as it curves around the Selkirk Mountains from the river's source to the southeast in the Rocky Mountain Trench and turns southwards towards the Arrow Lakes and eventually the United States. The main finds were in the middle of the southward leg of the river's journey out of the Big Bend proper, where the towns of Mica Creek and Big Bend marked the northward focus of the rush. The main part of the rush was nearer the Arrow Lakes, on creeks tributary to the Goldstream River and Downie Creek, which lay respectively immediately above and below the infamous Dalles des Morts or "Death Rapids" of the Columbia, which had been the scene of horrendous tragedies twice, in 1817 and 1838. The main town centres of the rush were at La Porte, British Columbia, at the foot of the rapids, and Downie Creek, nearby at that stream's confluence with the Columbia just downstream from La Porte.
Read more about Big Bend Gold Rush: Historical Context, Access
Famous quotes containing the words big, bend, gold and/or rush:
“When I say artist I don’t mean in the narrow sense of the word—but the man who is building things—creating molding the earth—whether it be the plains of the west—or the iron ore of Penn. It’s all a big game of construction—some with a brush—some with a shovel—some choose a pen.”
—Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
“I bend my body to the spade
Or grope with a dirty hand.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Not the gold that fastens your sandal,
nor the gold reft
through your chiselled locks
is as gold as this last year’s leaf.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Whether your child is 3 or 13, don’t rush in to rescue him until you know he’s done all he can to rescue himself.”
—Barbara F. Meltz (20th century)