Cameron and his partner Robert Stevenson discovered one of the richest claims in the Cariboo on Williams Creek.

His wife Margaret Sophia had died of typhoid fever just prior to this and Cameron had promised to take her back to Canada West for burial.

In 1865, he remarried and built a new residence at Fairfield at Summerstown, on property formerly owned by John Cameron, a distant relative.

In 1873, he had his first wife's body exhumed to disprove rumours of foul play in her death.

Cameron frittered away his fortune and, around 1886, he returned to the scene of his former windfall in British Columbia.