Thu Jul, 14 2011 09:00AM-10:00PM Billy Barker Days

Come experience Billy Barker Days, BC's largest free festival, held at Lebourdais Park in Quesnel, in the heart of BC's historic Cariboo Country.

Featuring parades, live music, family entertainment and plenty of delicious local cuisine, Billy Barker Days celebrates Quesnel's historic past a mining and farming center, as well as a transportation hub for gold panners traveling up the Fraser River to the gold fields of the Cariboo.

Adjacent to Lebourdais Park is the Quesnel Museum, home to 30,415 artifacts and archival items, all open for display to the public.

There is a "Cariboo Home" exhibit complete with boudoir, parlour, laundry and kitchen. A "Village Street" display recreates pioneer life, and features a general store, an old time school-room, a barber shop, and a dentist's office and hospital, complete with authentic period medical instruments.

LeBourdais Park itself was named after Louis LeBourdais (1888-1947), who worked tirelessly to record the local history of the Cariboo region, and who also represented Cariboon District as an MLA in Victoria for 12 years.

His gravestone is found in Pioneer Cemetery, and his correspondence, subject files, notes, drafts of articles, personal papers, and photographs relating to LeBourdais' interest in the history of the Cariboo are preserved at the BC Provincial Archives.