A century of dealmaking and government misdeeds forms the backdrop of this entertaining account of sternwheelers, iron horses and mountain roads. Battling factions of rail builders crossed many a line in the sand as they carved up both the land and the spoils of industry.

Did both federal and provincial politicians wittingly sabotage road construction programs to the benefit of the rail barons? Were Cornelius Van Horne, Major A.B. Rogers and Andrew McCulloch fully deserving of the accolades bestowed on them? Was railway man J.J. Hill a genius or an opportunist?

R.G. Harvey has applied a keen mind and deft pen to uncover skulduggery in politics and critical routing errors by the early surveyors and engineers who "carved their western paths." In turn he has exposed new scars and wrinkles to add to historic portraits otherwise untainted.

Robert G. (Bob) Harvey (1922–2014) immigrated to British Columbia from Scotland in 1948 and joined the Department of Public Works as a professional engineer. After several years in Nelson and Nanaimo, he held Regional Maintenance Engineer positions at New Westminster, where he was responsible for all provincial roads in the Skeena, Prince Rupert, Atlin, Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland districts, and later at Prince George. He moved to Victoria in 1967 and in 1976 became Deputy Minister of Highways and Public Works. Following his retirement in 1983, he began a second career as an author, publishing five books on the topic of transportation and politics in BC.

R.G. Harvey's profile page