(1838-28 Nov. 1922), prospector, adventurer. (Col. Robert Stevenson) Born probably at Williamstown, GC, but a resident also of Vankleek Hill. (Harkness describes him as being from Vankleek Hill.) When he revisited Vankleek Hill in 1894 it was reported that he “left here when he was a boy, in sixty-five, and has been away for nearly thirty years.” (Vankleek Hill Review 1 June 1894) However, given that he was not a boy in 1865 but a mature (and highly successful) man, we may guess that this report simply rolls together the two different events of his leaving Vankleek Hill at an early age and then revisiting it some years later in 1865. Having travelled by way of the Isthmus of Panama, he arrived in British Columbia in search of gold in 1859. The immediate gold fever in British Columbia having abated by the time he arrived, he thereupon turned south and prospected for gold in what is now the state of Washington. Later, he was appointed a customs officer on the Canadian-American border. When the Cariboo gold rush began, he returned to his old search for gold. Early in 1862 he met John A. Cameron (later famous as Cariboo Cameron), and he was a partner with Cameron in taking supplies into the Cariboo gold country for sale there. And as Cameron’s mining partner also, he shared in the wealth of Cameron’s celebrated gold claim.

     The rich discovery of gold was made on the claim in Dec. 1862, two months after the death of Mrs Cameron. In the winter of 1863, Stevenson accompanied Cameron in the memorable feat, so much honoured in GC story, of bringing the body of Mrs Cameron 400 miles through the wilderness from the site of the gold find to Victoria. Robert Stevenson remained a friend of Cariboo Cameron for the rest of their joint lives. They carried on a correspondence by letter, though no copies of the letters seem to have survived. Stevenson is one of our best sources for the story of Cariboo Cameron. He may also be fairly called one of the architects of Cameron’s reputation. He was the author of two important essays in recollection of Cameron, one published in the British Columbia Saturday Sunset of 3 April 1909 (“The True Story of the Death of ‘Cariboo’ Cameron’s Wife” ), and the other printed on pp. 243-287 of W.Wymond Walkem’s Stories of Early British Columbia (1914). A copy of his diary and memo book 1863-1876 is in the Archives of B.C. See in the present dictionary the entry for Cariboo Cameron for notice of a recent fictionalized biogaphy which uses Stevenson as the narrator. Stevenson died in Vancouver. He was survived by three children, two of them “living on the Stevenson ranch at Sardis,” B.C. At the time of his death it was expected he would be buried at Chilliwack.

Cornwall Standard 30 Nov. 1922 * obituary repr. from Victoria, B.C. Times (undated clipping) * Harkness 406-408 * biog. article on Stevenson, Cornwall Freeholder 18 Dec. 1919 * praised in report from Cariboo country, Cornwall Freeholder 9 June 1865 * his letter about Cariboo gold rush, repr. CF 10 April 1908 from B. C. press * Stevenson is frequently mentioned in the writings on Cariboo Cameron