Why a Booktrail?
1911: The coming of the railroad to the Canadian Rockies brings with it a whole trail of hope and despair
The Three Sisters Bar and Hotel
What you need to know before your trail
The coming of the railroad to the Canadian Rockies has brought a parade of newcomers to the heavenly Bow Valley – coal miners, artists, scientists and poacher by the name of Herbie Wishart, who has arrived on a one-way ticket.
Finding work as an outfitter for a fossil-hunting expedition headed by a prominent archaeologist, life seems to be going well. But it’s the findings of this expedition could overturn all previous knowledge about early life forms. Not every one seems to be keen to let the trail go ahead or be successful.
But when an early snowstorm hits the expedition mysteriously disappears. The Rocky Mountain park’s reputation could be under threat just as the government is keen to sell the pristine Canadian wilderness to the world.
Travel Guide
Gateway, Alberta, 1911
The coming of the railroad to the Canadian Rockies attracts a parade of newcomers to the heavenly Bow Valley. The town of Gateway is just one of the towns built to house the newcomers of the half-settled Canadian West.
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
A good museum to visit for the culture and history of the story.
Banff Park Museum National Historic Site of Canada
Landmark 1903 building & National Historic Site displaying natural history & educational exhibits
The novel looks at this Gateway as a town inspired and effectively created by the onset of the Canadian railway. The Canadian West is a tough and rough and ready little town with a cast of characters as varied and weatherbeaten as the landscape around them.
The fossil-hunting expedition with its potential findings could also change the landscape of the time. Such an expedition in one of the world’s most vast and beautiful, raw and rugged landscapes would be dynamite in more ways than one.
The novel is an ambitious portrayal of Western Canada’s past – detailing the development of a Parks Canada and the West.
Add to that, the survival of the First Nations Stony tribe, a bit of history about the internment of the Japanese Canadians during WWII and this landscape opoens up before your very eyes.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Three Sisters Bar and Hotel
Author/ Guide: Katherine Govier Destination: Alberta, Banff, Canadian Rockies Departure Time: 1911
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