district lots and maps

Introduction

Ashcroft Manor

Hat Creek House

Pollard's Cornish Ranch and Roadhouse

59 Mile House

70 Mile House

100 Mile House Ranch and Roadhouse

108 Mile House

111 Mile House

127 Mile House

137 Mile House

141 Mile House

150 Mile House

153 Mile House and Store

Dunlevy Roadhouse and Farm

Cottonwood House

Coldspring House

Beaver Pass House

 Pollard's Cornish Roadhouse and Ranch

map of lots 245,246,247, and 258

 

After leaving his home in Cornwall in 1849, John Pollard first travelled to California, where he mined. Following the "rush", John and a couple of companions, fellow countrymen John Butson and John Churchill, moved to Lillooet and worked two more seasons with a company of miners.

Late in the fall of 1860, Pollard and his associates moved north to the Quesnel River where they made a rich discovery at Keithley Creek. But, soon after, they became skeptical of any further mining opportunities.

The three men left the goldfields. When they discovered a tract of land "about 50 miles from Lillooet and opposite Wasley's Farm" in 1862, they pre-empted 160 acres each
(p12, B.Patenaude:1996).

Lots 245 and 246 were pre-empted collectively by Butson and Churchill 20 August 1862. John Pollard pre-empted lot 247 a day earlier and Samuel Wasley pre-empted lot 258 16 September 1862. All four lots were gazetted 14 August 1892
(Ashcroft Revitalization Committee:1989).

John Pollard was a pioneer. He soon bought out Butson, Churchill, and Wasley, acquiring 640 acres. Many more acres were added later. By fall, several log cabins appeared on Pollard's pre-emption lot, through which the new wagon road passed. One became a popular roadhouse, called Pollard's Cornish Ranch and Roadhouse. Pollard, now a rancher and roadhouse keeper, married late in life to young Kezia Truan, also of Cornwall.

Kezia ran the roadhouse successfully, and carried on the enterprises after Pollard's death, in 1901, with the pre-arranged help of ranch foreman, Jack Arthur. By the time of the First World War, one of the Pollard sons had taken over the ranch and in 1923 Kezia passed away. John Pollard the Second and his sons ran the ranch as hunting guides in the nearby hills in a tradition that would last after the death of John Pollard the Second in 1961
(p13, B.Patenaude:1996).



Last updated November 30, 1998.
Produced by Tina Rizzuti and the Schoolnet Digital Collections Team.