Wells

 city, place with historical importance, interesting place

Wells is a restored 1930's mining town chock-full of unique architecture and fascinating galleries, as well as being the gateway to Barkerville Historic Town.

Although placer gold had been mined for decades in the Cariboo goldfields and especially around Barkerville (around 3 million ounces in total), the mother lode of gold quartz ore was not discovered until 1930 by Fred Wells. Eventually 3 gold mines operated in Wells area, Cariboo Gold Quartz Mines at Cow Mountain to the south (operated from 1933 to 59), Island Mountain-Aurum Mine at the west entrance to town (1934-67) and Mosquito Creek Gold Mining Co a couple miles northwest (1980-87). In all, 1.2 million ounces of gold were extracted from these mines. Wells was a thriving community of 4500 people during the 1930s (bigger than Prince George and Quesnel), but with closure of the mines now has just 200 or so residents.

For history of the town and the mines, see wells.entirety.ca/

Recent exploration by International Wayside Gold Mines has found new gold ore between Wells and Barkerville, and the company will soon open up a new gold mine.