In 1851, reports of gold discoveries on Haida Gwaii (known as the Queen Charlotte Islands by the British) sparked great excitement among British and American settlers across the Pacific Northwest. On March 29, 1851, Governor Richard Blanshard wrote to Earl Grey, the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, telling him, "I have heard that fresh specimens of gold have been obtained from the Queen Charlotte Islanders. I have not seen them myself, but they are reported to be very rich."
Throughout the early 1850s, groups of miners arrived on Haida Gwaii in hopes of mining gold, but their presence caused concern for both the Haida Nation and the British colonial government.
When he learned of the increased efforts of American gold seekers on Haida Gwaii, Governor James Douglas wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, the Queen's principle Secretary of State for the Colonies on April 11, 1853, asserting the Crown's right to claim all gold found "within the limits of Queen Charlottes Island, and forbidding all persons, to dig, or disturb the soil in search, of gold..." In respsonse, the British created the Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands and appointed Governor Douglas as the colony’s Lieutenant Governor.
The miners faced resistance from the Haida, as well as many accidents and shipwrecks, in their pursuit of this precious metal, but their endeavours only turned up small quantitites of gold. By the late 1850s, Haida Gwaii's gold rush was declared a bust. Despite that, this brief period played an important role in making Haida Gwaii part of the Colony of British Columbia and ending any remaining American claims to the islands.