This trailblazing history of early British Columbia focuses on a single year, 1858, the year of the Fraser River gold rush — the third great massmigration of gold seekers after the Californian and Australian rushes in search of a new El Dorado. Marshall’s history becomes an adventure, prospecting the rich pay streaks of British Columbia’s “founding” event and the gold fever that gripped populations all along the Pacific Slope. Marshall unsettles many of our most taken-for-granted assumptions: he shows how foreign miner-militias crossed the 49th parallel, taking the law into their own hands, and conducting extermination campaigns against Indigenous peoples while forcibly claiming the land. Drawing on new evidence, Marshall explores the three principal cultures of the goldfields — those of the fur trade (both Native and the Hudson’s Bay Company), Californian, and British world views. The year 1858 was a year of chaos unlike any other in British Columbia and American Pacific Northwest history. It produced not only violence but the formal inauguration of colonialism, Native reserves and, ultimately, the expansion of Canada to the Pacific Slope. Among the haunting legacies of this rush are the cryptic place names that remain — such as American Creek, Texas Bar, Boston Bar, and New York Bar — while the unresolved question of Indigenous sovereignty continues to claim the land.

A fifth-generation British Columbian, Daniel Marshall is an author, professor, curator, documentarian, and researcher focusing on untold stories of BC’s rich history. He is a recognized leader and award-winning researcher on historic Indigenous-Newcomer relations, and their evolution and implications on Aboriginal rights today. His award-winning documentary, Canyon War: The Untold Story, aired on PBS, Knowledge Network, and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

His previous books include the multi-award-winning Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New El Dorado (Ronsdale Press) and Those Who Fell from the Sky: A History of the Cowichan Peoples (Cowichan Tribes).

Daniel Marshall's profile page

“Marshall has, in effect, rewritten the pivotal history of the birth of the province. This book is long overdue and will form the basis for further research for years to come.” —Canada's History

“This is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the gold rushes of the Western Cordillera and the geopolitical origins of British Columbia.” —The Ormsby Review

“Marshall’s lucid script documents the complexities of the 1858 Gold Rush and the various confrontations between Indigenous people and gold-seeking immigrants.” —Canadian Literature

“Our efforts toward reconciliation, seen from this perspective, still have very far to go. Claiming the land continues; now it is Indigenous peoples versus pipelines. The stakes are as high as they were in 1858.”—The Tyee