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Abstract: Stephen R. Bown continues to revitalize Canadian history with this thrilling account of the engineering triumph that created a nation. In The Company, his bestselling work of revisionist history, Stephen Bown told the dramatic, adventurous and bloody tale of Canada's origins in the fur trade. With Dominion he continues the nation's creation story with an equally thrilling and eye-opening account of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the late 19th century, demand for fur was in sharp decline. This could have spelled economic disaster for the venerable Hudson's Bay Company. But an idea emerged in political and business circles in Ottawa and Montreal to connect the disparate British colonies into a single entity that would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With over 3,000 kilometers of track, much of it driven through wildly inhospitable terrain, the CPR would be the longest railroad in the world and the most difficult to build. Its construction was the defining event of its era and a catalyst for powerful global forces. The times were marked by greed, hubris, blatant empire building, oppression, corruption and theft. They were good for some, hard for most, disastrous for others. The CPR enabled a new country, but it came at a terrible price. In recent years Canadian history has been given a rude awakening from the comforts of its myths. In Dominion, Stephen Bown again widens our view of the past to include the adventures and hardships of explorers and surveyors, the resistance of Indigenous peoples, and the terrific and horrific work of many thousands of labourers. His vivid portrayal of the powerful forces that were molding the world in the late 19th century provides a revelatory new picture of modern Canada's creation as an independent state."-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN: 9780385698726

Accession Number: P2023.25

Call Number: 08.5 B68d

Collection: Archives Library

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The soo line's famous trains to Canada

https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/catalogue26213

Medium: Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)

Published Date: 2023

Author: Gainer, Terry

Publisher: Victoria, BC : Rocky Mountain Books

Call Number: 08.5 G12t; 08.5 G12t reference copy

Author: Gainer, Terry

Publisher: Victoria, BC : Rocky Mountain Books

Published Date: 2023

Physical Description: 90 pages ; 8 cm

Medium: Library - Book (including soft-cover and pamphlets)

Subjects: CP Rail; Canadian Pacific Railway; Canadian Pacific Railway Company; Canadian Pacific Railway Hotels; Railway; Railway routes; Transportation; History

Abstract: The Soo Line’s Famous Trains To Canada is a brief history of a small and unique Class 1 railway and its famous Canada–USA tourist trains. Initially chartered in 1883 to serve the needs of local millers in Minneapolis, the Soo would eventually come to join the Canadian Pacific line at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with service to Montreal. In 1888, Canadian Pacific assumed controlling interest in the Soo Line, providing entry into the lucrative US market and levelling the playing field for the CPR to face the onslaught of ferocious competition from James J. Hill, the infamous American railway baron. The “little railway that could” grew to attain giant-killer status, launching famous passenger trains from Minneapolis and St. Paul, meeting head-on the western expansion of the Great Northern Railway and viable, competitive routes to the Atlantic seaboard. Over the years, the Soo Line introduced thousands of Americans to Montreal and Quebec City, the famous Canadian Rockies resorts, and the city of Vancouver, the home port for CP’s Pacific steamship services. The Soo also successfully competed on the Spokane and Portland routes from Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest. In 1923 the “Soo Mountaineer” was launched, becoming the most famous and longest “two-nation” train journey in North America. -- From publisher

Contents: Part 1: A brief history of the soo line -- 1. In the beginning -- 2. The birth of the railway -- 3. What a tangled web we weave -- 4. Westward ho through great northern's backyard -- 5. Wisconsin central, the final piece of the puzzle -- 6. Setting the stage, Canadian pacific steamship company and Canadian pacific hotels and resorts -- Part 2: Famous trains of the soo -- 7. The Atlantic limited -- 8. The soo Pacific express -- 9. The Manitoba express, the Winnipeg express, the winnipeger -- 10. The soo-Spokane-Portland train deluxe -- 11. The mountaineer -- 12. The mystique of the mountaineer -- 13. The depression and the dirty thirties -- 14. My mountaineer -- 15. 1962, triumph and tragedy -- 16. The end of an era.

ISBN: 9781771606714

Accession Number: P2023.25; Copy 1 signed by author

Call Number: 08.5 G12t; 08.5 G12t reference copy

Location: Reading Room

Collection: Archives Library

This material is presented as originally created; it may contain outdated cultural descriptions and potentially offensive content. Read more.