WILD HORSE CREEK

Chinese placer miners at Wild Horse Creek.

Gold rushes were often theatres of opportunity for many men to acquire instant riches. These areas were not usually open to Chinese miners due to the prejudice and superior numbers of Caucasian miners. Chinese miners often made mining claims, but it was quite apparent from the outset that such claims would not be honoured by the other miners.

Town of Wild Horse, 1890's. (Image courtesy of Fort Steele Heritage Town Archives FS 8.526)

Chinese miners therefore had to wait and move into claims after their white owners had exhausted all the easily obtainable gold and were looking to move to the next gold rush. Chinese miners paid good money for these "worked out" claims, which they would then work slowly and effectively over many years.

Did we believe the mines of Kootenay to be too poor to remunerate or even attract a white population, the circumstances of their falling into the hands of Chinese would hardly be a matter of regret….But we have every reason to believe that... the Kootenay mines are not poor, [but] are very fair average diggings….It is well known that the Chinese are not prospectors. When "John" can "ketche" diggings already opened up he makes a good industrious miner….But he lacks the enterprise and tact so essential to prospecting, and is content to plod away with a patience and persistence some others might imitate with advantage….But there is another ground upon which we regard as a calamity, the advent of a Chinese population in a mining camp capable of sustaining a population of Europeans. The Chinese do not become subjects of our country….While engaged in extracting gold the country's wealth they contribute little…towards the revenue of the institutions of the country….Of all classes who come to this Colony the Chinese are unquestionably the least profitable.

THE COLUMBIAN, November 24, 1886.

Invermere		Fort Steele