More than 1,200 people from all corners of British Columbia and abroad visited Barkerville Historic Town & Park between Dec. 12 and 14, as the national historic site bustled with special events and activities for yuletide revelers looking to experience the winter-time magic of western North America’s largest heritage attraction.
This year’s Old-Fashioned Victorian Christmas event broke an 18-year attendance record that was set in December 1997.
Admission to Barkerville’s annual holiday event was by donation, either a monetary gift or a non-perishable food item, for the Wells Legion holiday hamper program.
More than 30 bankers boxes – nearly 1,200 pounds – of donated non-perishable foodstuffs were collected over the three days; almost a pound of food per visitor.
Just days before the Old-Fashioned Victorian Christmas event took place, violent gusts of wind downed a 100-foot-plus spruce tree in a century-old section of the Barkerville Cemetery
The huge tree collapsed onto the cemetery’s hallowed ground and managed to miss at least a dozen densely situated headboards.
Other than some slight damage to the picket fence and short staircase surrounding the tree, not a single grave marker was damaged.
“Other than our now infamous windstorm a few days prior, we really couldn’t have asked for better weather this past weekend; there was sunshine, snow, smiles all around … and the generous donations made by our guests to the Wells Legion hamper program means so much to so many this time of year,” says Carleigh Drew, Barkerville’s marketing, products and activities officer.
