Bowron Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park located in northern British Columbia, Canada, east of the city of Quesnel. Other nearby towns include Wells and the historic destination of Barkerville. Once a popular hunting and fishing destination, today the park is protected and known for its abundant wildlife, rugged glaciated mountains, and freshwater lakes. The park's standout attraction is the recreational paddling circuit through the Cariboo Mountains, which connects a majority of the park's lakes via waterways and short portages, and has been named by Outside magazine as one of the top ten canoe trips in the world. The park is open to a limited number of canoes and kayaks each year from May 15 to September 30. History Indigenous use Many First Nations frequented the area that is now Bowron Lake Provincial Park before European settlement. Early settlers reported encounters with natives, who were seen hunting, trapping, fishing, and foraging in the area. Accounts vary in terms of which specific groups these natives belonged to: some settlers speculated these were the Carrier people, while others suggested they were Shuswap or Iroquois. A 100-person village existed on Bear Lake (now known as Bowron Lake), but the village site sloughed into the lake in 1964, due to naturally occurring mudslides and possibly from seismic shock resulting from the 1964 Anchorage earthquake. By that time the village was uninhabited. It is likely that its prior inhabitants had been wiped out by disease, as the First Nations of the area were deeply impacted by the smallpox epidemics of the 1860s. The loss of the site prevented any form of carbon-dating to determine its true age. While very little formal archaeological work has been done, a large number of indigenous artifacts have been seen in the park, including clam middens, old campfires, arrowheads, and cache pits. As a lingering reminder of the First Nation presence in the area, many of the landmarks and features in and around the park have indigenous names, particularly in the Carrier language. Some examples are Mount Ishpa (Carrier for "my father"), Kaza ("arrow") Mountain, the Itzul ("forest") Range, the Tediko ("girls") Range, and Lanezi ("long") Lake. Gold rush era The first major arrival of European settlers in the area around Bowron Lake Park came with the Cariboo Gold Rush in the 1860s, which was centered in the nearby town of Barkerville. While little gold mining happened within the