The gold is thought to be derived from quartz stringers concentrated in the schists, emplaced by hydrothermal events related to the regional tectonic activity.

The Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, led by Robert Brown, included Lieutenant Peter John Leech of the Royal Engineers.

[8] Within weeks, thousands of prospectors, many of whom were veterans of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush six years earlier, travelled from Victoria overland by trail or by steamer to Sooke.

[12] During the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway (CNoPR) construction from Victoria, the rail head reached just beyond Leechtown, at 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) south of Sooke Lake, in October 1912.

[12][20] The Leech River still has active placer claims, and small scale operations produce quantities of fine gold and flakes.

[22] A 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) logging railway operated from Leechtown to the Kapoor Lumber Company sawmill in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Vandals damaged the original 1928 cairn,[5] and with treasure hunters, have also destroyed buildings from the mining and logging eras.

Indicating the site of the Gold Commissioner's house, the cairn's stolen bronze dedication plate read: Memorial erected by the B.C.

In 2007, the area was purchased for the Greater Victoria water supply,[24] which protects it from development and prevents public access.

[29] Strengthening bylaws and installing additional gates and fences have reinforced the restricted access to the watershed area.

[22] In 1855 or 1856, Richard Barter, a Canadian, known as Rattlesnake Dick, and his gang, robbed a Wells-Fargo mule train in California of about $80,000 in gold.

Allegedly, he found his way to Leechtown to slowly launder the gold, which he kept hidden in a knee-high leather boot buried in the vicinity.

[30] In 1864, after a storm, Leechtown prospector Hans Christen searched for his missing mule, which he found sheltering inside the entrance of a small cave.

[31] In an unknown year, Ed Mullard, while hunting in the Jordan Meadows-Leechtown area, discovered a cave in the rock, comprising chiseled steps, multiple galleries and treasures.

The next year, using information Mullard provided, and aerial survey photos, the newspaper organized a fruitless search to locate the cave.