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100 Mile House - Historical Sketch 108 Heritage Site Located along Hwy. 97, you will find the 108 Heritage Site. Tourists and locals are welcome year round. The site is open for daily tours mid May to mid October. While most of the buildings are original to the site, a few have been moved to the location including the McNeil House, the Greenlees trappers cabin and the 133 Mile School House. The McNeil House was once located at 105 Mile and was one of the original roadhouses. Fashioned in the classical Victorian style, the house boasted 10 bedrooms. It ceased to be a roadhouse in 1912 and is now home to a most interesting museum. Other buildings at the 108 Heritage Site include the impressive Watson Barn, the BX barn, a blacksmith shop, post house, ice house, telegraph building, bunk house and an outhouse. Road Houses Scattered along the Cariboo Gold Rush Trail are a series of roadhouses. Usually within a day's ride of each other, the roadhouses were most often built where water and grasslands were plentiful. Those on the way to the gold fields to the north stopped overnight for a meal, a bed and a place to water and feed their horses. Road contractors or those who didn't fare so well in the gold fields were often responsible for building the stopping houses. They in turn became the pioneers of the area and developed communities and local businesses. Stagecoach In 1863, the road from Yale north to Soda Creek was completed; by 1864, coaches, mule trains and freight wagons were moving passengers and supplies along the 480-km root, a 52-hour voyage. 
The Barnard Express Stage line, whose coaches regularly traveled this road, used a number of vehicles, such as mail coaches and six-horse passenger coaches. These coaches traveled up and down the Cariboo for 50 years until 1915, the end of the stagecoach era.
The Red Coach Inn is the resting-place for one of the few surviving wagons of the Barnard Express and Stage Line. (approx. 1 Km North of the Visitor Information Center)100 Miles From Where? Where is 100 Mile House 100 miles from? The name originated in the 1860s, indicating 100 miles from Lillooet, the starting point in the 300 mile trek to the Barkerville gold fields. They Being Who were the people who stopped here on their way to the gold fields? Of course, there were loads of miners and prospectors hungry for the riches the gold would bring them. But there were many others who were drawn up the Gold Rush Trail eager to profit in the other ways. Entrepreneurs such as blacksmiths, surveyors, accountants, and ranchers were all a part of the rush. |
Beautiful 100 Mile House in the South Cariboo, located 5.5 hours north of Vancouver on Highway 97 near over 1,000 lakes.Numerous resorts, campgrounds, B & B's motels, provincial and parks to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. OUTDOOR FUN: gold panning trips, wagon rides, guest ranches, bicycling, horseback riding, canoeing, forestry tours, fishing, golfing . hunting . walking tours, water sports, cross-country ski trails, snowmobile trails, bird watching PLACES OF INTEREST: Centennial Park, carved canyons, Emu + Buffalo farms, heritage sites, look outs, roadhouses, waterfalls SHOPPING: art galleries, antique stores, craft & gift shops, Farmers Market, trade South Cariboo Visitor Information Centre Box 340, 100 Mile House, V0K 2E0, Canada Phone Toll Free:1-877-511-5353 Phone:1-250-395-5353 .... Fax:1-250-395-4085 100 Mile NetShop Website: www.100mile.com |
the original trail can be seen to alternate from the right to left side of Highway 97. At 13.2 kms you can see the original trail on the west and a section of the "second" trail with its "blacktop" surface (built in the 1950's) to the east. The trail is once again visible on the right (east) side of the highway between kilometres 22.2 and 23.7, indicated by remains of a fence on both sides of the trail with a flat, driven-on appearance in between. As you proceed north, look for signs of previous travelers on both sides of the highway and try to imagine the level of determination that drove those settlers, prospectors and business people to seek fortunes in country we call "The Cariboo."