British Columbia

8th Jun 2025

‘A Form of Society So Crude’: Death in The Cariboo

In this post, we are looking at five murders committed in the Cariboo region from 1862 to 1864. Starting with the killing of Averena Rice Aka: ’The Scotch Lassie’ After 1861, musicians, magicians, actors and touring minstrel troupes from San Francisco began to spend time in the Cariboo goldfields entertaining the ‘settlers so wild, Continue reading

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19th Century, Averena Rice, Barkerville, Boone Helm, British Columbia, Canada, Cariboo, Charles Beaucheir, Crime and Punishment, David Sokolosky, Gold Rush, Gold Rush History, Herman Lewin, history, Justice, Murder, Newspapers, Public Execution, Quesnel, Robbery, The Scotch Lassie, Tom Clegg, True Crime, Victoria, William Armitage, Williams Creek
29th May 2025

An Ingrain Swindler

As reported in The Victoria Daily Chronicle, Thursday, 24 September 1863. ‘An Ingrain Swindler– The Police are after a man who lately served a term of imprisonment at New Westminster for swindling Billy Ballou, the ex-Expressman, out of $35, about one year and a-half ago by representing that a certain bag contained gold dust when Continue reading

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19th Century, B.C, British Columbia, Canada, Conman, Crime, Gold, Swindle, Swindler, Victoria
23rd Nov 2024

Death on Alfred Waddington’s Road: The 1864 Tsilhqot’in War

The steamer Emily Harris arrived in Victoria Harbour from Nanaimo on the morning of Thursday, May 12, 1864. Among the passengers on board the vessel were three men—Edwin Mosely, Peter Petersen and Philip Buckley, the only survivors from a party of seventeen men employed in building a road from Bute Inlet to Fort Alexandria and Continue reading

history, True Crime

Alfred Waddington, Barkerville, BC History, Begbie, British Columbia, Bute Inlet, Canadian History, Canasda, Cariboo, Chartres Brew, Chilcotin, Colony, Conflict, Donald McLean, Execution, Exonerated, First Nations, Fort Alexandria, Fur Trade, Genocide, Gold Rush, Greed, Hanging, HBC, history, Homathko, Indigenous, James Douglas, Klattasine, Nanaimo, Newspapers.com, Qusenel, Settlers, Seymour, Smallpox, Steamer, Telloot, Trade, Tsilhqot’in, Vancouver Island, Variola, Victoria, War
24th Aug 2024

The 1915 Vancouver Bridge Fires

By Matthews, James Skitt, Major (1878-1970) – Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1612556 Shortly before 4 a.m. on Thursday, 29 April 1915, a watchman working for the Pacific Box Company noticed smoke rising from the Connaught Bridge, spanning False Creek, Vancouver. The Connaught Bridge, a four-lane, 1,247 metres (4,091 ft) long medium-level steel bridge, was opened to traffic Continue reading

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Arson, BC, Bridge Fire, British Columbia, Cambie Street Bridge, Canada, Canadian History, Connaught Bridge, Crime, Firefighters, Germany, Granville Street Bridge, history, Internment, Newspaper, Vancouver, Vancouver History, World War One, Ypres

British Columbia

‘A Form of Society So Crude’: Death in The Cariboo

An Ingrain Swindler

Death on Alfred Waddington’s Road: The 1864 Tsilhqot’in War

The 1915 Vancouver Bridge Fires