View source for Cariboo

{{other uses|Cariboo (disambiguation)}}{{distinguish|Caribou}}
{{no footnotes|date=April 2014}}
{{short description|Region of British Columbia, Canada}}
[[File:South BC-NW USA-relief CaribooplusChilcotin.png|thumb|300px|right|Location of "the Cariboo" as a cultural/historical region, including the [[Chilcotin District|Chilcotin]] and Lillooet-Thompson areas]]
[[File:South BC-NW USA-relief CaribooPlateau2.png|thumb|300px|right|Location of the Cariboo Plateau proper]]

The '''Cariboo''' is an [[intermontane]] region of [[British Columbia]], Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from [[Fraser Canyon]] to the [[Cariboo Mountains]]. The name is a reference to the [[Caribou (North America)|caribou]] that were once abundant in the region.<!--and still are found in the ....Coast or Cariboo Mountains?-->

The Cariboo was the first region of the interior north of the lower [[Fraser River]] and its canyon to be settled by non-indigenous people, and played an important part in the early history of the colony and province. The boundaries of the Cariboo proper in its historical sense are debatable, but its original meaning was the region north of the forks of the [[Quesnel River]] and the low mountainous basins between the mouth of that river on the Fraser at the city of Quesnel and the northward end of the Cariboo Mountains, an area that is mostly in the [[Quesnel Highland]] and focused on several now-famous gold-bearing creeks near the head of the [[Willow River (British Columbia)|Willow River]]. The richest of them all, [[Williams Creek (British Columbia)|Williams Creek]], is the location of [[Barkerville]], which was both the capital of the [[Cariboo Gold Rush]] and of government officialdom for decades afterwards (it is now a museum town).

The Cariboo goldfields are underpopulated today but were once the most settled and most significant of the regions of interior British Columbia.<!--more history on next edit--> As settlement spread southwards of this area, flanking the route of the [[Cariboo Road]] and spreading out through the rolling plateaus and benchlands of the [[Cariboo Plateau]] and lands adjoining it along the Fraser and [[Thompson River|Thompson]] rivers, the meaning changed to include a wider area than just the goldfields.

The grasslands of the Cariboo are home to the regionally endangered [[American badger]] (''Taxidea taxus jeffersonii'').

==Name==
As early as 1861, [[James Douglas (governor)|Governor Douglas]] used the name Cariboo to describe the area in dispatches to Britain.<ref name = Akrigg>{{Citation | last =Akrigg | first =G.P.V. | last2 =Akrigg | first2 =Helen B. | title =British Columbia Place Names | place =Vancouver | publisher =UBC Press | year =1986 | edition =3rd, 1997 | isbn =0-7748-0636-2 | url-access =registration | url =https://archive.org/details/britishcolumbiap0000akri_w1q9 }}</ref>{{rp|38}} 

==Notable towns==

North Cariboo:
*[[Quesnel, British Columbia|Quesnel]]
*[[Wells, British Columbia|Wells]]
*[[Likely, British Columbia|Likely]]
*[[Barkerville, British Columbia|Barkerville]]
*[[McLeese Lake, British Columbia|McLeese Lake]]

Central Cariboo:
*[[Williams Lake, British Columbia|Williams Lake]]
*[[Horsefly, British Columbia|Horsefly]]
*[[150 Mile House, British Columbia|150 Mile House]]
*[[Lac La Hache, British Columbia|Lac La Hache]]

South Cariboo:
*[[100 Mile House, British Columbia|100 Mile House]]
*[[Forest Grove, British Columbia|Forest Grove]]
*[[Bridge Lake, British Columbia|Interlakes]]
*[[Lone Butte, British Columbia|Lone Butte]]
*[[70 Mile House, British Columbia|70 Mile House]]
*[[Clinton, British Columbia|Clinton]]

==See also==
*[[Cariboo Plateau]]
*[[Cariboo Gold Rush]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.jnweb.com/british-columbia/south-cariboo-information.html Information on the South Cariboo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821073651/http://www.jnweb.com/british-columbia/south-cariboo-information.html |date=2018-08-21 }}

{{Subdivisions of British Columbia|regions=yes}}

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<!--Categories-->
[[Category:Cariboo| ]]
[[Category:History of British Columbia]]
[[Category:Interior of British Columbia]]