Because the old Gold Rush town of Barkerville was so remote, its residents struggled to keep correspondence up with loved ones back home. Initially letters were sent with friends traveling between Victoria and nearby Quesnel. It wasn’t very reliable, and I imagine it didn’t help with feelings of homesickness.
It wasn’t until several years later, in 1879, that Barkerville had its first post and telegraph office. It made keeping in touch much easier for those working in the goldfields.
Visitors to Barkerville today can stop in to see how the local mail continues to be processed.
The work is slow and non-automated. All outgoing mail is hand date-stamped, using the very rubber stamp that has been used for over 140 years.
Once the mail is ready to go, a freight wagon picks it up and takes it to the gate where it’s transferred to a modern day postal truck to continue it’s journey.
Barkerville’s post office is a neat step back in time.
Bonne journée!
Marla
Marla on the Move 
Wow! 140 years? That rubber stamp has earned its keep! 🙂
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Definitely! I heard that changing the date each day is a bit of a task (given the age) but no one complains because it’s such a neat tradition.
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How wonderful!
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The whole place is such a jump back in time, but to see something still in operation from back then really was eye-opening.
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So cool! I only visited Barkerville once or twice when I lived in Quesnel in the 60’s, course I was just knee high to a grasshopper then.
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Ah yes, Quesnel. We had to make an emergency trip back there from Barkerville to buy some cheap shoes from Walmart because someone (me) assumed that the weather would be warm and only brought sandals. I forgot to factor in the 1200+ elevation and was ill-prepared. There was a cute restaurant that we had breakfast at on the way home, passing back through the city.
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