Barkerville Historic Town is off to a historic start.
The national heritage sight south of Prince George and east of Quesnel always kicks off its annual tourist season over the May long weekend. Victoria Day celebrations, steeped as they are in their own pot of historic tea, makes for a lively way to open the gates each year. North America's largest "living museum" doesn't waste the opportunity for Queen Victoria to make a royal visit for each spring's launch.
"We are amused," said James Douglas, Barkerville's manager of visitor experiences following this year's edition. "Our opening week, which concluded with the Victoria Day long-weekend, drew the largest number of visitors we've seen during the same period in the past 10 years. We are humbled by the support we've received so far this year by our local and regional family of guests, and can't wait to show them what the rest of the 2013 season has in store."
Barkerville has shown some of the strongest tourism muscle in the province over the past few years. While the region's tourism industry reported a 30 per cent decline in 2011 as the economic crisis effects were still being felt, Barkerville only dropped nine per cent. At the same time, internal revenues at Barkerville dropped by six per cent. In other words, of the people who did travel that key economic year, Barkerville was still popular, and even though the crowds were smaller the spending inside Barkerville was still healthy.
Since 2011, the numbers have jumped. There was about a 10 per cent growth in attendance in 2012 over 2011, and now this opening week burst of popularity is giving the organizers and actors a positive message about this year's prospects.
"Barkerville is more than just heritage buildings," said Douglas. "It includes two cemeteries, 187,000 artifacts; 60,000 photos; and a resource library and archives. Barkerville has as much infrastructure as a small municipality: 405 hectares of land, a water reservoir, treatment plant and distribution system, a sewage treatment lagoon and collection system, a dyke and drainage protection system and fire alarm and suppression systems as well as three campgrounds and several kilometres of road. Eighteen private businesses operate within Barkerville to provide visitor services such as restaurants, accommodation and shopping."
Barkerville provides about 20 year-round jobs and over 150 seasonal jobs. It also isn't quite correct to call it a National Historic Site - it is actually three. The town itself has the federal designation, but the Cariboo Wagon Road and the Chee Kung Tong building within the townsite have their own NHS certification.
There are many family, group and other discount rates to gain entry to the town-sized facility.
Regular admission rates during spring season range from small kids at about $5, to adults at about $15. Two-day visitors only pay a twoonie more for the second day's admission. There is so much activity, heritage, culture, education and science within Barkerville that many wish to spread it out over a couple of days (there are hotels in the nearby town of Wells, bed and breakfast accommodations within Barkerville itself, plus abundant campsites all around).
