The Swift River placer showing is located about 25 kilometres southwest of Barkerville. Historic production was recorded between 1874-1895 and 1931-35 and totalled 85,991 grams gold. Area geology comprises metasediments (quartzite) of the Upper Proterozoic-Paleozoic Snowshoe Group close to the contact with sediments of the Middle-Upper Triassic Nicola Group to the west.

The recorded gold production of the Cariboo mining district was considerably greater than that of any other in the Province. The first discoveries of placer streams were made in 1860; new creeks were found quickly, and production mounted so rapidly that 1863 was the year of greatest placer output. Although detailed records of production are available from 1874 onward, it is believed that fully one-third of the total Cariboo production was mined in the preceding fifteen years (Bulletin 28).