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Grade 4 · Social Studies · Unit 4 of 6

Gold Rushes

Fraser River and Cariboo gold

What your child practises

The 1858 Fraser River and Cariboo gold rushes, how they brought newcomers and created the Colony of British Columbia, and their effects on First Nations and the land.

NWT Curriculum learning standard: The Fraser River and Cariboo gold rushes; demographic changes in pre-Confederation BC

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Put these gold rush events in order, from earliest to latest.

    • ✨Billy Barker strikes gold in the Cariboo (1862)
    • 🏝️The Colony of Vancouver Island is created (1849)
    • ⛏️The Fraser River Gold Rush begins (1858)
    • 🍁British Columbia joins Canada (1871)

  2. Question 2

    Why did thousands of people rush to the Fraser River in 1858?

    ⛏️
    • Free farms were being given away
    • A railway had just opened
    • Gold had been found there
    • Beavers had returned

  3. Question 3

    Many Chinese miners came to the gold rushes. What did many of them do?

    ⛏️
    • Built the first trading posts
    • Mined for gold and ran stores and other businesses
    • Ran the Hudson's Bay Company
    • Became colony governors

  4. Question 4

    Where did many of the miners come from?

    Gold on the Fraser

    In 1858, news spread that gold had been found along the Fraser River. In just a few months, about 30,000 people rushed north, many of them from California. Most stopped in Victoria to buy supplies, and the small fort quickly grew into a busy town.

    The river ran through the homelands of First Nations such as the Stó:lō and the Nlaka'pamux. Some First Nations people were already finding gold and trading it to the Hudson's Bay Company. The sudden crowds of miners led to conflict over land and fishing places.

    To keep control of the area, Britain created the Colony of British Columbia in 1858, with James Douglas as its governor.

    • The Arctic
    • England
    • California
    • Montreal

  5. Question 5

    Why does gold collect at the bottom of a miner's pan?

    ✨
    • Gold sticks to metal pans
    • Gold is magnetic
    • Gold is much heavier than sand and gravel
    • Gold is lighter than water

  6. Question 6

    In 1858, miners arriving for the Fraser River Gold Rush stopped in which town for supplies?

    • 🏙️Vancouver
    • ⚓Victoria
    • 🐎Calgary
    • 🏢Toronto

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