Barkerville Historic Town and Park will launch the return of its spring shoulder season just in time for the Victoria Day weekend.
Manager of Public Programming and Media, Stewart Cawood said everyone is excited to be opening up the gates today (May 16) with admission by donation.
“A select few of our shops are going to be open and some of our exhibits will be open as well and we’ll be doing this until May 30th. Starting tomorrow (Friday) People can come in and enjoy a bit of a quieter time in Barkerville.”
Visitors cab explore various open establishments including McMahon’s Confectionary, McPherson’s Jewellers, Mason and Daly General Merchants, C. Strouss Drygoods and Provisions, the Kwong Sang Wing Store, and book gold panning lessons at the Eldorado Gold Panning and Gift Shop.
Dining options include the Goldfield Bakery, the Wake Up Jake, House Hotel, and the Lung Duck Tong Restaurant.
Cawood noted that accommodation options are now available.
“The Forest Rose Campground, located 2 kilometres down the road, just off the Bowron Lake turnoff, is open now until October 1st. The four cottages that are in the lower end of the parking lot area of Barkerville before you enter the historic zone and town are available for booking as is the Kelly Guest House and the King Guest House. We also have the St George Hotel right in Barkerville on the main street that is also available for booking.”
Cawood said he expects to see more people travelling and exploring their own backyard here in Canada.
“We’re definitely hopeful about that and we think that some of the events we had last year with the forest fires some people are going to be thinking, you know, Barkerville was pretty threatened last year, maybe I want to take advantage of seeing it.”
When asked about how attendance at Barkerville Historic Town and Park has been, Cawood said pre COVID they were seeing numbers that were up towards 40-thousand to 60-thousand people.
“Last year before the wildfires we were looking at a projectory of about 50-thousand people. Unfortunately we never got to those numbers, we had about 23-thousand people last year and that’s just what happens when an event like that occurs. We are very hopeful for pre COVID numbers again this year. I’m hoping between 40 to 60 thousand people will come visit us.”
– story done by Pat Matthews, My Cariboo Now staff
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