In the early days of British Columbia, pack trains of horses or mules were a lifeline for the early pioneer population. Explorers, trappers, traders, miners, merchants, workers and settlers and relied on them for the materials needed to live and work. Packers were also vital to the building of railways, roads, and telegraph lines. Pack mule train d …

Born of Indigenous grandmothers and white grandfathers, Irene Kelleher lived all her life in the shadow of her heritage. Her local community in British Columbia's Fraser Valley treated her as if she was invisible. The combination of white and Indigenous descent was beyond the bounds of acceptability by a dominant white society. To be mixed was to n …

Third book by de facto expert on Chinese Immigration to BC reveals never-before-told stories relevant to food, politics and national heritage. In this long awaited third book, author Lily Chow further explores Chinese settlement in BC. In the nineteenth century, thousands of Chinese immigrants arrived in British Columbia to work as labourers. After …

In 1945, Alfred Adams, a respected Haida elder and founding president of the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia (NBBC), was dying of cancer. After decades of fighting to increase the rights and recognition of First Nations people, he implored Maisie Hurley to help his people by telling others about their struggle. Hurley took his request to bot …

In 1858, gold was discovered in the Fraser River. News of this discovery travelled to the Pearl River Delta, where, in the aftermath of the Opium Wars, many Chinese sought to escape the poverty, overcrowding, political unrest and even slavery—invaders from western Asia captured and shipped many Chinese to South America as “piglets.” This tumu …

When Tania Millen began doing horse pack trips in western Canada, she had trouble deciding where to go - not because there were so many options, but because information was so hard to come by. Riding the trails was the only way she could gain information about particular routes, and she is now sharing her knowledge with readers and riders. Millen p …

A diminutive cowboy with a full beard and a Texas drawl stands onstage at Expo 86 in Vancouver telling wild and woolly stories of life in the Chilcotin backcountry. The audience is mesmerized by his poetic ballad of an alcoholic dog that rode on the back of his saddle in Anahim Lake. The performer is Luther Corky Williams.

Originally from Texas, Cor …

In his third book, The Junction, John Schreiber invites us to join him on a journey into the hidden corners of BC’s Cariboo Chilcotin, where he observes and describes a land of mountains and old trails, coyotes and bighorn sheep, Aboriginal folk, homesteaders, ranchers and the stories of long ago.

Driven by his love of this land, Schreiber wanders …

Set in the wild country north of Lillooet and west of the great Fraser River, Old Lives: In the Chilcotin Backcountry paints the rugged landscape and equally rugged lives of the Chilcotin’s enigmatic old-timers: Aboriginal and settler, male and female, deceased and alive. It takes vigilance, persistence, courage and humour to live where survival …

Surveying Southern British Columbia, Jay Sherwood's fourth and final book about prominent BC surveyor Frank Swannell, covers the years from 1901 to 1907, before Swannell began surveying for the BC government. Gore & McGregor, one of the leading surveying companies in the province, hired Swannell to work on projects throughout southern British Colum …

Many Canadians say that British Columbia is the zaniest political province. It's too diverse, too polarized—geographically, demographically and ideologically. But the British Columbia political arena is lively, and it has often led the way in electing women to parliaments—as respected spokespeople for the public and as equal people.

In Seeking B …

In the early 1900s, Mary Spencer attracted a small audience with her breathtaking photographs of the local scenery and townsfolk of Kamloops. Although her name remains unfamiliar to most Canadians, this enigmatic young woman likely captured the most notorious and familiar images ever taken in BC-photos so widely known that it is likely a rare Canad …

In 1967, in celebration of Canada's 100th birthday, Les Voyageurs left Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, in ten 26-foot canoes. These one hundred gallant men, representing eight provinces and two territories, travelled 5,286 kilometres to Expo '67 in Montreal. The trip took them across such major lakes as Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, Superior, Nipissi …

In the spring of 2007 the Canadian Forces and the Canadian Rangers, the regiment responsible for providing a military presence in isolated communities, set out on a treacherous journey across jagged sea ice and over steep and hostile terrain. Their mission was to travel over two thousand kilometres by snowmobile from Resolute to the Canadian Forces …

Here is the definitive fly fisher's guide to BC's Central Interior. Brian Smith writes about the allure of BC's wild rainbow trout that attracts fly fishers from all over the world. He describes in extraordinary detail the fabled Blackwater, Stellako and Crooked rivers and the still waters of the Dragon, Hobson, Hart and Wicheeda, renowned trophy l …

Forbidding canyons, raging rapids and menacing rocks -- this was the daily challenge that faced whitewater men who worked the wild rivers and creeks to bring freight and supplies to northern BC in the years before the Grand Trunk Railway. In particular, the Grand Canyon of British Columbia's Fraser River was infamous for swallowing at least 200 luc …

Insatiable traveller Vivien Lougheed has hiked many of the world's most renowned peaks, including the Andes and the Himalayas, and published several books detailing her adventures. Now, with From the Chilcotin to the Chilkoot: Selected Hikes of Northern British Columbia, she turns her attention to the northern woods and the place she calls home. Hi …