The Cottonwood Roadhouse is located 18 miles east of Quesnel on the road to Barkerville. Roadhouses offered food and shelter to travelers every 12 to 15 miles along the entire length of the Cariboo Road. Many were destroyed by fire, as was the case with those at Clinton and 70 Mile House - both of which had been open for business for almost 100 years when they burned in the 1950s. Some, such as the one at 100 Mile House, gave their names to towns that grew up around them.

Cottonwood House is of further interest because John Boyd, from the time he became associated with the House in 1864 until he died in 1909, kept an account book and a journal in which he recorded the events of each day, from the weather to visitors. This manuscript filled 34 volumes and weighed 140 pounds. Boyd employed two to three full time workers year round for haying, building or mining, and as many as six or seven men extra were hired and often included several women and children in the garden. With 10 children he had another small work force but unusually for the times he always paid his children for the work they did. Almost from the beginning he employed a tutor for the children and many of the children were sent to Vancouver or Victoria to complete their high school education. His wife, Janet, had family on the San Juan Islands in Washington State and usually went to be with them have her children. This is perhaps one reason that none of them died in child birth.

The house was acquired by the provincial government in 1963 and the Cottonwood House Historic Park created. Today it is managed on behalf of the provincial government by the Quesnel School District which operates the site as a hands-on teaching resource for high school students taking tourism studies.

Resources:

Living Landscapes:
http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/upperfraserbasin/cottonwood/history.html

Boyd papers in Quesnel Museum:
http://www.quesnelmuseum.ca/Museum/arch/boydjf7.htm