- post-confederation (1867-) (89)
- western provinces (51)
- history (34)
- historical (31)
- social history (26)
- pre-confederation (to 1867) (25)
- canada (24)
- regional (23)
- native american (22)
- personal memoirs (22)
- women (20)
- canadian (17)
- hockey (17)
- adolescence (16)
- friendship (16)
- native canadian (16)
- adventurers & explorers (15)
- fishing (15)
- world war i (13)
- paranormal (12)
Guts and Go Overtime
Saskatchewan is hockey. The only activity more pervasive is farming, and often the two are combined when farmers play hockey for their community teams. As Calvin Daniels discovered when researching and writing the first Guts and Go (2004), hockey is so intertwined with everyday life in this province that hockey stories are much more than the retell …
Triumph and Tragedy in the Crowsnest Pass
Rich in stories, the Crowsnest Pass region in the southern Rocky Mountains still bears evidence of its tragedies, and one monumental triumph—a railroad rammed through the pass in 18 months. Hailed as the greatest project in the Dominion, the Crow's Nest Pass Railway was built by men who toiled with horses and primitive tools to carve the way for …
Fort de Prairies
Fort Edmonton, a prairie institution and icon from 1795 to 1915, was not just a physical edifice and community—it was a touchstone of western Canadian commercial history, leading to the founding of a strong prosperous city. Established in the wilderness as an outpost and pioneer commercial venture, it became the headquarters for the fur trade for …
Grizzly's Home
In this latest collection of beautifully illustrated, easy-to-read fables, Robert James Challenger continues to teach children practical, moral lessons about life in today's complicated world. Owl shows Grandson that a problem will only go away when each person involved becomes part of the solution. Little Mallard Duck finds out the hard way that t …
Greatest Grey Cups
Against the odds, the Canadian Football League continues to entertain and enthrall Canadians from coast to coast. And the biggest event on the football calendar—the most popular sporting event in Canada no less—is the Grey Cup. While the battle for the championship is always a memorable event, this collection highlights the 10 greatest Grey Cup …
Camping with Kids
Children have "certainly altered my camping life," writes Jayne Seagrave in this latest addition to her popular camping series. She rises to the challenge, however, and with this detailed guide, so will many other camping enthusiasts who feel deterred by the prospect of camping with kids.
Seagrave covers it all, from camping while pregnant to campi …
Nanaimo
Nanaimo is one of Canada's fastest-growing communities. Positioned beside a stunning and vibrant harbour, where the sight of seaplanes, fishboats, ferries, kayaks and sailboats paints an ever-changing seascape, Nanaimo is a city blessed with spectacular natural beauty, a vivid commercial history, cultural diversity and a vibrant attitude towards th …
Denny's Trek
Like many other pioneering North West Mounted Police officers, Cecil Denny was a colourful, independent man with a career full of conquests and controversy. He and his comrades played key roles in the taming of Canada's wild and woolly west, and in this compilation of selected writings from his books The Law Marches West and The Riders of the Plain …
Breaking News
Winner of a City of Vancouver Heritage Award, 2005.
Before the First World War, photographs of major news events were rarely seen in the daily newspapers; the technology was still too new to make their use viable. Filling the gap and providing the missing images were the postcard photographers, who could make their breaking-news photos available …
Wires in the Wilderness
This is the tale of how Canada's high northern wilderness was brought into civilization's fold through a frail network of wires laboriously strung between poles and trees for hundreds of desolate miles. The Yukon Telegraph started in 1897, when gold was discovered in the Yukon and the government needed a faster way to communicate with its remote no …
Nature's Circle
This is Robert James Challenger's fifth collection of beautifully illustrated, easy-to-read short stories that impart practical, moral lessons about life in today's world.
As in Aesop's fables and First Nations legends, animals, birds and insects are the ones who do the teaching. Mother Eagle helps her daughter overcome her sibling rivalry. An enco …
Cattle Kingdom
One of the most colourful chapters in the history of North American settlement began in the 1880s when the rich Alberta grasslands spreading east from the foothills of the Rockies became the magnet for cattle ranching. Award-winning Cattle Kingdom provides readers with all the colourful tales of raffish characters, political intrigues and partnersh …
Legendary Show Jumpers
Once in a while a horse comes along that is extraordinary. Air Pilot, Barra Lad and Big Ben have all had their turn at being the brightest star blazing in the show-jumping sky. For more than 100 years, great Canadian high-flying horses have provided spectators with exhilarating displays of their jaw-dropping talent and love of jumping.
Great Stanley Cup Victories
The most exciting time in hockey is when the best teams battle it out for the greatest hockey prize of all: the Stanley Cup. Thrilling and dramatic games happen during the playoffs, when the stakes are high and everything is on the line. Celebrate the joy of victory with some of the greatest hockey stories of the past century.
Calgary Flames
"Yeah, baby!" yelled Peter Maher as the Calgary Flames won their series against the San Jose Sharks and headed to the Stanley Cup finals. The 2003-04 season saw the team climbing into the ranks of top contenders thanks to exceptional play by captain Jarome Iginla, goaltender Miika Kiprusoff, Martin Gelinas and others. Not since the 1989 Stanley Cup …
Frank Gowen's Vancouver
Frank Gowen's Vancouver extended from White Rock to the Sunshine Coast as the photographer and his camera explored the playgrounds and edifices of a vibrant West Coast community. In the city itself, Stanley Park, and particularly the park's famed Hollow Tree, became Gowen's personal domain.
In this era when the picture postcard was firmly entrenche …
British Columbia 100 Years Ago
In an era when picture postcards became a unique new way to "call home," they quickly established a role in enticing an ongoing parade of tourists to British Columbia. This book features an impressive collection of black-and-white lithograph images that were sold to the public in the early twentieth century. Documenting life in British Columbia dur …
Hub City
The Nanaimo Bastion, which marked its 150th anniversary in 2003, remains a prominent symbol of Nanaimo's heritage as an HBC fort, coal-mining centre and transportation hub, a vital link between other developing parts of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. Hub City, the second volume in Jan Peterson's trilogy on Nanaimo's vibrant history, tells …
Tributes to the Scarlet Riders
This engaging collection of verse captures the history and experience of the Mounties from the 1800s to the present day. Ranging from humorous to poignant, these poems reflect the moods and adventures of Arctic survivors, plains horsemen, vulnerable trainees and witty veterans. Collectively, they will entertain anyone who has ever been or known a M …
Never Fly Over an Eagle's Nest
A BC classic—over 100,000 copies in print!
Joe Garner's father, Oland, was the oldest of four brothers who were run out of South Carolina in 1903 by the Ku Klux Klan. Along with his bride, Lona, Oland headed west to San Francisco, then north to Victoria, BC. He found employment with Emily Carr's father. Ten years later he helped Emily build her …
Fortress of the Grizzlies
In a remote valley near the BC-Alaska border lives a remarkable group of grizzly bears who have never learned to fear humans. When logging threatened this valley, people from all over the world joined a battle to save the bears. In 1994, their efforts paid off with the establishment of the Khutzymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary, one of the world's mos …
Dinosaur Hunters
Ten gripping tales of murder and missing persons show how skulls and skeletons reveal their secrets to forensic investigators. A skull is found on a scree slope high above the mirror-calm waters of Spray Lakes. Bones rumoured for years to be buried in a Medicine Hat backyard are finally dug up. The trussed and tortured skeletal remains of an unknow …
Alberta Titans
They came west looking for new opportunities and they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Entrepreneurs such as James Lougheed, Max Bell, Eric Harvie and A.E. Cross all had a few characteristics in common: they were exceptionally ambitious and took enormous risks. And they went from rags to riches.
Trailblazing Sports Heroes
From Canada's first World Champion, rower Ned Hanlan, to the unstoppable heroine Bobbie Rosenfeld, Canada has had its share of exceptional athletes. These great athletes forever changed the sports of basketball, hockey, track and field, rowing and skiing. These are their stories.
Stolen Horses
Dorothy Pedersen sheds light on the world of equine crime in Canada. The horse-rustling business is alive and thriving, and dates to the 1800s. This collection of true stories is an intriguing look inside the nefarious aspect of the horse world and an account of the valiant people who track down stolen horses.
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives
The Order of British Columbia was established in 1989 to recognize and honour ordinary citizens who have made a difference in the lives of others.
Goody Niosi offers the stories of 17 of these recipients, from well-known people like Rick Hansen and Robert Bateman to lesser-known heroes, including Dr. Michael O'Shaughnessy, who has dedicated his lif …
Black Diamond City
Black Diamond City: The Victorian Era is the first book in Jan Peterson's trilogy on the history of Nanaimo. Peterson traces the evolution of the city from its First Nations history to its coal industry to its becoming a diversified Victorian-era community.
Using original diaries, journals, letters, ships' logs, government records, maps, archival …
Fort Steele
Fort Steele began in 1864 as the site of John Galbraith's ferry, which transported eager gold seekers across the Kootenay River to nearby Wild Horse Creek. Major Sam Steele's "D" Division of the North West Mounted Police built Kootenay Post here in 1887 and helped alleviate tensions between white settlers and the Native Ktunaxa people. With all dis …
Honoured in Places
Ever since the Canadian prairies were first settled and the Mounties marched west to establish and maintain law and order, the names of individual officers have left their mark on the national landscape. Their long tradition has been honoured in many of the place names of Canada, especially in the West.
In this collection, over 250 of the NWMP, RN …
Salt of the Sea
Captain Ed Shields tells the comprehensive history of the North Pacific codfish industry, shedding light on the lives of the men who sailed to the Bering Sea in search of cod from the 1860s until 1950. He describes the work that went into preparing the fishing fleet for five months on the high seas and ensuring that the ships came back safely with …
Magnificently Unrepentant
"Merv Wilkinson and Wildwood, his small patch of forest, provide powerful evidence that a forest can be logged while its integrity is maintained in perpetuity. In speaking out against current industrial clear-cut logging practices, Merv has become a genuine Canadian hero. Uncompromising, tough, fearless and with a wonderful sense of humour, he is …
The People’s Boat
There may be no other sailing ship in North America that has touched the lives of so many people during 80-plus years of existence as HMCS Oriole. The design of famed MIT marine architect George Owen, the pride of original owner George Gooderham, commodore of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, the steadfast training ship of the Royal Canadian Navy for …
Scandal!!
Lotus Land's scandals of the past 130 years may seem to be all about money, but there's also been sex, corruption, staggering incompetence and outright lies. Jump aboard as veteran political junkie William Rayner explores BC's scandal-ridden history. Read about the comely juror and the murder suspect, the two politicians who fell in love on the jo …
Shelter From the Storm
Buying Saffron, a 24-foot racing sailboat, was an act of desperation meant to help single parent June Cameron and her youngest son validate themselves. It did that and more. A friend persuaded June to race the boat, and over the next decade June, either solo or with her all-female crew, competed in BC's major sailing races, taking home a lot of the …
Salmon's Journey
This fourth collection of short stories written by Robert James (Jim) Challenger combines the timeless appeal of Aesop's fables with the oral storytelling traditions of First Nations and other cultures. Each story stimulates conversation about the moral woven within.
Go along on Salmon's journey. Learn how Hermit Crab found a new home. Discover why …
The Battle of Alberta
Alberta has long been a big part of the frantic Canadian hockey scene, and even before Alberta became a province in 1905, the intense hockey rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton was in full swing. Long before the glory days of the '80s, teams from Edmonton and Calgary worked each other over with relish and passion, all the while creating a hockey r …
On The Street Where You Live
In the mid-1800s, Victoria grew from a fur-trading post into a provincial capital—the jewel in British Columbia's golden crown. Meanwhile, many of the early residents, happy to leave the Hudson's Bay Company behind, followed simple trails from the fort or discovered new routes of their own. In her first book, Danda Humphreys introduced readers to …
White Slaves of Maquinna
John R. Jewitt's story of being captured and enslaved by Maquinna, the great chief of the Mowachaht people, is both an adventure tale of survival and an unusual perspective on the First Nations of the northwest coast of Vancouver Island.
On March 22, 1803, while anchored in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Boston was attacke …
How to Catch Crabs
It's fun, it's easy, and it's rewarding. There is nothing quite like a harvest of Dungeness crabs to set the tone for a perfect shoreline feast. Charlie White, with Nelson Dewey's clever illustrations, shows how beginners and experienced crabbers alike can benefit from his decades of experience. Whether you use crab traps or the traditional shoreli …
How to Catch Shellfish
With over 120 illustrations, How to Catch Shellfish shows you how, where and when to catch clams, oysters, mussels, prawns and other shellfish. Also included are:
- equipment tips.
- easy ways to shuck oysters and open and clean other shellfish
- how to outrace razor clams
- shoreline recipes
Golden Nuggets
When gold was discovered on the Fraser River, the rush was on. By early spring of 1858 the need for shelter, food, rest stops and stores became very apparent, as miners and would-be-miners made their way up into the hinterland. From Yale to Barkerville, roadhouses sprung up along the Cariboo's gold-rush trail. From their crude beginning, the roadho …
Born for the Wild Country
Over a whole bunch of decades, Ted “Chilco” Choate has spun a full quota of trail guide yarns. Along the way he also learned to fabricate a line or two that would help get him out of a jam. With that in mind it seems fitting that Chilco offers his autobiography as “being more than 90 percent true.”
A seasoned big-game guide and outfitter, C …
Steelhead Fly Fishing
The most all-encompassing compendium of truly valuable information on steelhead ever written. —Jack Hemingway
There are exceptional chapters on the fish itself; the tackle and techniques used to pursue it under diverse circumstances in such great steelhead rivers as the Deschutes, the Dean, the North Umpqua, the Bulkley, the Rogue and the Babine, …
Cries of the Wild
These stories by Jeff Lederman, who operates the Island Wildlife Natural Care Centre on Salt Spring Island, illustrate the challenges faced by the people who work to save wildlife. The Centre is a registered charity dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. Lederman's recollections of some of the animals …
Glyphs and Gallows
In 1995, Peter Johnson went looking for a rare set of petroglyphs located on the outer coast of Vancouver Island near an abandoned whaling village. Encouraged by archival research that yielded court records, 90-year-old correspondence and a tantalizing 1926 newspaper article, Peter sought to tie these glyphs to the 1869 wreck of the trading barque …
Diver’s Guide
In his debut book, Greg offers guidance to over 50 dives in five areas Metchosin and Race Rocks, Victoria, Sansum Narrows, Saanich Inlet, Sidney and the Southern Gulf Islands.
Diver’s Guide, Vancouver Island South is fully illustrated with Greg’s own computer-generated maps, based on his personal exploration of these underwater environments, an …
Tying Flies For Trophy Trout
Jack Shaw spent a lifetime studying trout and the insects they feed on, with the aim of creating fly designs that would attract the wiliest of fish. In this edition of his bestselling book, he tells fly fishers how they too can challenge trophy trout with homemade flies. Jack provides information on basic equipment and materials and gives instructi …