Survival On a Westward Trek, 1858–1859When gold was discovered in the Fraser River country of British Columbia in the 1850s, St. Paul, Minnesota became the departure point for the plunge westward, as was St. Louis for the American gold rushes. Minnesotans soon caught the fever. Nine young men set out in July of 1858 for the goldfields of British Columbia. Struggling through inhospitable territory, losing their way, and barely surviving the winter, battered remnants of the splintered party