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list price: $16.95
edition:Paperback
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category: Transportation
published: Mar 2006
ISBN:9781895811742
publisher: Heritage House Publishing

Carving the Western Path

By River, Rail, and Road Through Central and Northern BC

by R. G. Harvey

tagged: history
Description

The history of British Columbia's transportation systems north of the Canadian National Railway's mainline may not be well known—but it certainly is colourful. Continuing the story he began in the first volume of Carving the Western Path, R.G. Harvey describes the development of river, road and rail routes that crossed the northern two-thirds of BC.

 

This was a land of dreams and schemes that seemed to feed on each other. It started with the Collins Overland Telegraph, a communication link that was to connect Europe and America in the 1860s. Though this plan collapsed with the success of the trans-Atlantic cable, the telegraph surveyors established patterns for future roads and settlement. They also sparked the Omineca gold rush.

 

It was a land full of larger-than-life characters, including:

  • Charles Hays, who dreamed of a major seaport at Prince Rupert but died on the Titanic before he could realize his vision.
  • Charles Bedaux, who in the 1930s carved his 416-mile path into the northern Rockies.
  • Railway promoters Warburton Pike, Sir Edward Phillipps-Wolley, William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, who got gifts of land and money but couldn't always meet their promises.

Their stories mingle with those of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the Alaska Highway, the White Pass and Yukon Railway and those of the sternwheelers, fur traders, gold miners and other adventurers who were drawn to this last frontier.

About the Author

R. G. Harvey

R.G. (Bob) Harvey was born in Scotland in 1922, and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a B.Sc. in civil engineering in 1943. Bob immediately joined the British army and served in the UK, India and Burma before being placed on reserve as a captain (EME) in 1947. He immigrated to Canada in 1948 and joined the BC Department of Public Works that same year, right in the middle of the worst spring flooding in 54 years. In 1950 Bob married Eva Huscroft. He worked in Nelson and Prince George before becoming Deputy Minister of Highways and Public Works in 1976, retiring in 1983. Bob has written five books on the transportation history of British Columbia.

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