Book description
Edward Mallandaine was there! To prove it he thrust himself into the
historic photograph of the "Last Spike" being driven to mark
the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Surrounded by the
railway dignitaries of the time, his young face peers out amid their
frosty beards.
Edward had just turned eighteen when he left his home in Victoria,
British Columbia, to join the Canadian militia to fight Louis Riel in
the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Hired to ride dispatches over the
unfinished stretch of railway in British Columbia, he meets highway
men, high officials, men of the North-West Mounted Police, and the
denizens of saloons hidden away in mountain passes. He survives the
lawlessness of remote towns and railway camps, rubs shoulders with
Chinese labourers struggling to blast a right-of-way through the
towering peaks of Eagle Pass, and makes a freezing midnight ride by
railway flatcar to reach the outpost of Craigellachie just in time.
It is, admittedly, a book aimed at younger readers, but don't let
that sway you. It is still highly readable, and it will help to shed new
light on the construction of the railway 125 years ago.
Ray Argyle
has written for publications such as The Beaver and the
National Post and is the author of several books, including
Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada and
Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime. He lives in Toronto.
