In a narrow valley about midway between the towns of Nelson and Blenheim, New Zealand, gold was found in 1864 by settlers prospecting the gravel bar at Wilson's Beach, on the Wakamarina River. In a matter of weeks this sparsely populated district, then virtually on the frontier of European settlement, was bustling with goldminers and their followers. Canvas towns sprang up along the valley as thousands laboured to wrest the precious metal from the Wakamarina and its tributaries. The rush was soon ovre; the early promise of rapid fortunes turned to leaner pickings and a long, fine autumn gave way to a long, wet winter. Men came and went, but the goldfield was still young when an infamous crime took place: the robbery and murder of five Wakamarina men on the Maungatapu Track to Nelson. The Wakamarina was never a large goldfield, not by area nor by yield, yet enough men stayed on to develop its goldmining possibilities. A few claims paid very well indeed. The independent alluvial miners soon made room for the mining companies, with their big plans, capital backing and expensive machinery. Over the following decades enormous sums were spent tackling the rivre terraces, dredging the river or damming its gorges and in mining the quartz reefs. Most of these enterprises were dismal and costly failures. Only one mining company ever paid a dividend. The mining camps appeared and disappeared but the townships of Canvastown and Deep Creek, and the nearby town of Havelock, took on a more permanent character. In this book historian and geologist Mike Johnston successfully portrays the lure of Wakamarina gold and the persistent efforts made to secure it, despite the valley's remoteness, dense forests, muddy trails and repeated (and legendary) floods. From official records and many decades of newspaper columns, Dr. Johnston has compiled an entirely fresh and full history of this famous goldfield....