Crooked River Rats

A history of men who worked the rivers in the Rocky Mountain Trench. Drift back in history to time when the rivermen still plied their trade through the northern rivers of BC. Crooked River Rats tells the tales of men and women who traveled the river highways living and working in the wilderness. Generations of trappers, hunters, big game guides and prospectors depended on the riverboat for their supplies. Using brute strength and strong will, these river pioneers endured much hardship as they opened up the northern bush. These are their stories. Today as motorists travel the John Hart Highway running north from Prince George they will see the Crooked River appear on the west side of the road. It is a very slow-running stream that is for the most part shallow and often very narrow. Yes, the river is unimposing and quiet now, but only fifty years ago this river was the only highway to the north and, as such, teemed with activity. All the freight to the north was carried along the Crooked, Pack, Parsnip, Finlay and Peace Rivers by long riverboat. The decades of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s were the heyday of the rivermen. These were the years when the price of wild fur was high. Roads had penetrated the headwaters of the Crooked and Pack Rivers by the 50s, but the country northward still was serviced mainly by riverboats until 1969 when Williston Lake was formed by hydro development, thereby cutting off the rivers. The communities and trading posts of McLeod Lake, Finlay Forks, Fort Graham and Fort Ware all depended on the river highways for their existence. Generations of trappers, hunters and big game guides, as well as independent prospectors depended on the boats for their supplies. These provisions would, in many cases, have to last and entire winter with freight being almost impossible to move during the November to April freeze up. The book begins with events that took place before the advent of motorized power, when river travel required simple, brute strength. I then continued with stories that took place through the 1920s and 30s when outboard engines arrived on the scene. Trappers and the trapping industry are what opened up all of Canada and this book would be remiss if these enterprising men were not given their due. I have included discussions on what life was like for the men and women who braved the rivers and the hardships of northern wilderness life. To this end, I have included excerpts from letters and diaries of the day that described the hardships these people faced, and accepted as almost routine, in their daily lives. These excerpts were copied as the original authors wrote them so none of their flavor would be lost. There are also true-life stories about gold seekers, big game guides and the missionaries who lived and thrived throughout the 40's, 50s and 60s. The last chapter of this book describes the enormous impact the Peace River Dam, completed in 1968, had on the area and its people. The men and women that lived and worked in this Rocky Mountain Trench area and particularly the rivermen themselves were a hardy lot. They were individualistic and resourceful in emergencies and they just loved to be living and working in the wilderness. These are their stories.

Western Canada’s natural environment faces intensifying threats from industrialization in agriculture and resource development, social and cultural complicity in these destructive practices, and most recently the negative effects of global climate change. The complex nature of the problems being addressed calls for productive interdisciplinary solutions. In this book, arts and humanities scholars and literary and visual artists tackle these pressing environmental issues in provocative and transformative ways. Their commitment to environmental causes emerges through the fields of environmental history, environmental and ecocriticism, ecofeminism, ecoart, ecopoetry, and environmental journalism. This indispensable and timely resource constitutes a sustained cross-pollinating conversation across the environmental humanities about forms of representation and activism that enable ecological knowledge and ethical action on behalf of Western Canadian environments, yet have global reach. Among the developments in the contributors’ construction of environmental knowledge are a focus on the power of sentiment in linking people to the fate of nature, and the need to decolonize social and environmental relations and assumptions in the West.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors: Racing to uncover the mystery of several severed feet found floating in the Gulf of Mexico, Agent Pendergast is faced with the most inexplicable challenge of his career. A startling crime with dozens of victims. Appearing out of nowhere to horrify the quiet resort town of Sanibel Island, Florida, dozens of identical, ordinary-looking shoes float in on the tide and are washed up on the tropical beach—each one with a crudely severed human foot inside. A ghastly enigma with no apparent solution. Called away from vacation elsewhere in the state, Agent Pendergast reluctantly agrees to visit the crime scene—and, despite himself, is quickly drawn in by the incomprehensible puzzle. An early pathology report only adds to the mystery. With an ocean of possibilities confronting the investigation, no one is sure what happened, why, or from where the feet originated. And they desperately need to know: are the victims still alive? A worthy challenge for a brilliant mind. In short order, Pendergast finds himself facing the most complex and inexplicable challenge of his career: a tangled thread of evidence that spans seas and traverses continents, connected to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern medical science. Through shocking twists and turns, all trails lead back to a powerful adversary with a sadistic agenda and who—in a cruel irony—ultimately sees in Pendergast the ideal subject for their malevolent research.

BASTION (a fortified position) is an absolute work of fiction. It is written with the hope that it will entertain its readers with the many stories and characters within. The book begins with Jackson parachuting into Normandy on D Day. He promises a young paratrooper he would go to East Texas and tell his parents how he died. He did not realize the young paratrooper was the sole heir of a multibillion dollar estate. The first stories are about Jackson's stay in Army hospitals and being discharged. The book tells the stories of his two year journey to East Texas to keep his promise to the dead soldier. Jackson learns the soldier's family is the Bastions who own nearly all of Red River County plus some of Bowie County. He marries El, their beautiful auburn haired daughter, and she makes him joint heir of the entire Bastion estate. The book tells how Jackson uses an unlimited amount of money to do good for all. He and El were, and remained, deeply in love. El was always his greatest supporter in what seemed his scatter-brained adventures. Jackson had married a one hundred thousand acre cattle ranch and couldn't ride a horse. He bought a caterpillar to ride the range while he learned to ride a real horse. It didn't take long for him to ride with the best. BOBBY NEAL CHAPMAN was born to tenant cotton farmers Basil Calvin Chapman and Etalka Lee Chapman on December 14, 1926. They and his sister Doris lived six miles east of Bonham, Texas in a two room house. When he was five years old the family moved to Hilger School District to live with his Grandmother who was very sick. Hilger had only a two room school house and less than thirty students. Basil was a good man. He only had a third grade education, but he was a good family man. He worked hard and was at home when the sun went down every day. Bobby lacked only one week of being fifteen years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He graduated from High School at the age of sixteen and went to work for the railroad in Bonham, Texas until old enough to go to the army. After spending nearly two years in the Army Paratroops, he returned to work with the Railroad after being discharged. Counting military service he spent forty four years working for the Railroad.

“Calling to mind such widely disparate writers as Mark Twain, Andre Norton and Peter Dickinson, Stevermer paints a realistic ruin of society.” —Publishers Weekly The award-winning author of the Scholarly Magic series delivers the thrilling adventure of a crew of young kids working their way through a post-apocalyptic world on a steamboat they call home . . . No one knows for sure what caused the Flash. They just know that nothing has been the same since. Cities have been destroyed by pestilence, riots, and fires. The paddleboat River Rat, once a museum, was turned into an orphanage. But a dangerous storm forced the children to flee with the boat to safer waters, making it theirs for good. Since then, Tomcat, Toby, Esteban, Lindy, Spike, and Jake have traveled, bartered, and performed their way up and down the Mississippi River. One rule that has served them well: no passengers. But after watching a man on shore being pursued by a vicious pack of locals, the group has no choice but to save him. At every stop, the boat is met by the man’s tireless hunters. They want what the fugitive knows: the location of a bunker filled with guns. A currency more valuable than gold . . . and one that the crew of the River Rat might well pay for—with their lives. “An unusual, compelling futuristic novel . . . wry, sharp, lively, and perceptive.” —The Horn Book (starred review) “Too good to miss.” —Booklist An ALA Best Book for Young Adults A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

The language of crime has a long and venerable history - in fact, the first collection of words specifically used by criminals, Hye-Way to the Spittel House, dates from as early as 1531. Jonathon Green is our national expert on slang, and in Crooked Talk he looks at five hundred years of crooks and conmen - from the hedge-creepers and counterfeit cranks of the sixteenth century to the blaggers and burners of the twenty-first - as well as the swag, the hideouts, the getaway vehicles and the 'tools of the trade'. Not to mention a substantial detour into the world of prisons that faced those unlucky enough to be caught by the boys in blue. If you have ever wondered when the police were first referred to as pigs, why prison guards became known as redraws, or what precisely the subtle art of dipology involves, then this book has all the answers.