Sternwheelers & Canyon Cats - Jack Boudreau

The story of men who braved the dangerous waterways of the uppper Fraser River to build the GTP Railway. 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 luckless occupants of rafts and small craft between the years 1862-1921. 'Sternwheelers and Canyon Cats' is the story of the 'Canyon Cats' who made their living running the Grand Canyon and other equally dangerous waterways. A total of twelve steamers worked the upper Fraser River during the period 1862-1921 and the dangers faced by these vessels and their steel-nerved captains are legend. It was a perilous existence hauling supplies to the isolated construction camps of the GTP Railroad and in retrospect it seems ironic that these steamers were made obsolete by this same railway upon its completion. 'Sternwheelers and Canyon Cats' is a chronicle of the men whose feats almost defy belief and whose contribution to BC history has gone long unrecognised.