Emory Bar
Emory Bar is located along the banks of the
Fraser River, roughly 5 km south of
Yale. It was, along with dozens of bars along
the Fraser, worked voraciously for gold in the late 1850s. Competition between miners was fierce,
and, in 1858,
Governor Douglas was confronted by angry miners at Emory Bar, who demanded official word on the nature
and title of gold claims, an issue that had spurred several recent murders in the
area.
1In addition to miner infighting, local First Nations were dragged into the fray, and
sought, through
Douglas, restitution for the miners’ intrusions and myriad abuses.
2 In 1858, one miner described the banks near
Yale as a
surging mass of jostling humanity of all sorts of conditions,
conditions which gave rise to the
common occurrences
of
Night assaults and robberies, varied by an occasional cold-blooded murder or daylight
theft.
3 Douglas details his travels into this legal and social quagmire in
this report to
Lytton.
Apparently, gold was not the only precious metal on offer at Emory Bar. As this despatch
from 1860 relates, it had silver leads
as well.
- 1. G. P. V. Akrigg and H. B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1977), 131.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid., 132.