New Pathways to Gold Society

The New Pathways to Gold Society (NPTGS), a non-profit, non-partisan organization working with communities along the Gold Rush/Spirit Trails, stretching from Hope to Barkerville and beyond. Incorporated in 2007, NPTGS is a community-based society dedicated to heritage tourism development, First Nations reconciliation and Multiculturalism. We’re governed by a Board of Directors that’s balanced, with 50/50 Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal Directors and one designated Multicultural Director. Our directors come from a variety of political persuasions and professional backgrounds. But they all share a passion for realizing the potential to be found along the New Pathways to Gold.

NPTGS helps build sustainable local economies via heritage tourism by sharing a more inclusive story about the founding of modern B.C. Since 2007, NPTGS has raised $3.47 million for projects and programs, contributed $3 million to GR/ST corridor communities, created nearly 2,600 person-days of employment, successfully launched and/or completed 17 major projects and staged 150 events/performances, lectures, workshops, screenings and symposia. We have a track record of successful projects like “Canada Day in the Canyon,” the Motherlode Revue, our Heritage Trails Program and the Chasing the Golden Butterfly passport-geocache program.

We serve the Gold Rush/Spirit Trails Corridor, which stretches from Hope to Barkerville and comprises 39 First Nations and dozens of communities. Six different provincial ridings and five federal electoral districts are included in this corridor. Other stops on the trail include Victoria and New Westminster.

Why do we do it? Because the Gold Rush/Spirit Trails communities face major challenges, like a declining resource-based economy, declining populations, greatly-reduced traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway. NPTGS is working towards a coordinated strategy to reverse these trends. It’s also because the GR/ST corridor has major assets to build upon, like the most diverse cross-section of First Nations cultures in North America. It’s the cradle of West Coast Chinese-Canadian culture. It has one of North America's most magnificent natural landscapes. And there’s the Gold Rush/Spirit Trails themselves.

How do we do it? NPTGS builds partnerships with communities, local businesses, corporations, First Nations, all levels of government, multicultural groups and other tourism organizations to build, market and deliver products. We bring people together to help unlock the potential of the GR/ST corridor. Working together is the key to re-inventing this rich, historic region. Let’s move forward together along the New Pathway to Gold.

Working together, NPTGS believes by the year 2020 we can build sustainable local economies via heritage tourism; re-invent the GR/ST marketing brand; promote First Nations reconciliation, Multiculturalism; expand existing heritage/aboriginal tourism assets and create new ones.

NPTGS is working on major projects all along the GR/ST corridor. The Alexandra Bridge Project near Spuzzum is the marquee heritage tourism attraction, with the 1926 Alexandra Bridge as its centrepiece. The Gold Rush Snowmobile Trail between 70 Mile House and Horsefly is being transformed. And the Gold Rush/Spirit Trails marketing initiative covers the entire corridor. Check out our website for more information on these projects.