Français
Canada / Canada’s Great Moments / Drawing 10

Canadian history · Drawing 10 of 37

Chinese miners on the Fraser

1858

Colouring illustration: Chinese miners on the Fraser
An imagined scene: the tools, clothing and canyon are simplified, and the two miners portray no one.© Atlasmio · All rights reserved

In 1858, thousands of gold seekers, including Chinese miners, rushed to the Fraser River in British Columbia, on Nlaka’pamux and other First Nations lands. Canada’s first Chinese communities grew from these gold rushes.

Look together

What tools are the miners using to look for gold?

An idea to try

Hide a few yellow buttons in a tray of sand, then shake the sand gently through a sieve to find them. Talk about how patient a miner had to be.

For the adult reading along

A little more to discover

News of gold on the Fraser River drew about 30,000 gold seekers in 1858, most of them from California. Chinese miners came too, many from San Francisco; most had roots in a few counties of Guangdong and called these lands Gum San, “Gold Mountain.” Kept out of the richest lower diggings, they worked farther up the canyon, often on claims others had left, and opened stores, laundries and gardens. At its peak, half of Barkerville’s people were Chinese.

The rush invaded Nlaka’pamux lands and fishing sites and led to the Fraser Canyon War of 1858. Chinese Canadians faced racism too: British Columbia took away their vote in 1872 (the railway page, 1885, tells what followed). Chinese artisans had come to Nootka Sound as early as 1788, but lasting communities grew from the gold rushes. Ask your child what is unfair about treating people differently.

Sources and context (3)

These links lead to other websites. Explore them with an adult. Source titles appear in their original language; some linked pages are in French.

  • Chinese Canadian Museum — Gold Rush & ChinatownsThe community’s museum: migrants from a few counties of Guangdong; “Gum San,” Gold Mountain; Fraser River (1858) and Cariboo gold rushes; laundries, meals, produce; first Chinese communities in Victoria and Barkerville, half Chinese at its peak; vote taken away in 1872 and restored in 1947.
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia — Fraser River Gold RushAbout 30,000 gold seekers in 1858, about 80 per cent from California; Chinese among the miners; excluded from the lower Fraser, they dug beyond Yale; Indigenous lands invaded and the Nlaka’pamux salmon fishery disrupted; Fraser Canyon War of 1858.
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia — Chinese CanadiansChinese artisans came with John Meares to Nootka Sound in 1788; Chinese prospectors arrived from San Francisco in 1858; work on abandoned claims; head tax from 1885 to 1923; exclusion from 1923 to 1947.

Source review: 2026-09-24. Illustrations simplify places and scenes; they are not historical documents.