For more than 50 years, from 1863 until 1917, the red and yellow B.C. Express Company’s stagecoaches transported mail, express, and passengers from Yale to Barkerville, an 800 mile return trip.

With the completion of the CPR Railway in 1886, however, the new community of Ashcroft became the major southern terminus of the stagecoach route. To those of us who grew up on a diet of western movies, the term “stagecoach” brings to mind images of masked men on horses waiting in Ambush, holding up terrified passengers and galloping off with sacks of gold.