Lightning Creek

Lightning Creek This creek was discovered in 1861 by Bill Cunningham and his partners Bell and Hume after abandoning their efforts on the later named Jack of Clubs creek. Seeking better returns for their efforts the men entered a new river drainage over Burns Mountain and as Cunningham put it when ever things got tough he stated "This creek is really lightning" and so the creek was named. The men soon discovered the vast riches of the creek. Hume recovering 80 pounds of gold in a week of work. The settlements of Van Winkle and then later Stanley would be constructed the following year. Mining on the Vancouver, Volcan and Victoria claims would produce fantastic fortunes. The famous "Butcher Bench" across from Van Winkle would be the site of some of the largest gold nuggets ever recovered in the Cariboo and Province of BC. Course gold of up to 40 pounds were recorded to be regularly recovered from the surface bedrock. The creek would go through a dozen consecutive gold rushes through the decades. The surface gold was quickly mined out, so miners turned to the deep channel workings on stretches such as Wingdam where deep shafts and massive pumps attempted to tap the rich pay on bedrock. The ever present Cariboo slum however, would be their undoing, and countless companies and ventures have failed to profit from these workings. It is unknown just how much gold was really recovered from Lightning creek over the century and a half of mining but some speculate over a billion dollars in gold has come out of the region. The area continues to see mining and great success even into the present day.