The Last Spike

About this book

In the four years between 1881 and 1885 Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Last Spike reconstructs the incredible story of how some 2 000 miles of steel crossed the continent in just five years exactly half the time stipulated in the contract. Pierre Berton recreates the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking: the railway on the brink of bankruptcy with one hour between it and ruin; the extraordinary land boom of Winnipeg in 18811882; and the epic tale of how William Van Horne rushed 3 000 soldiers over a half-finished railway to quell the Riel Rebellion. Dominating the whole saga are the men who made it all possible a host of astonishing characters: Van Horne the powerhouse behind the vision of a transcontinental railroad; Rogers the eccentric surveyor; Onderdonk the cool New Yorker; Stephen the most emotional of businessmen; Father Lacombe the black-robed voyageur; Sam Steele of the North West Mounted Police; Gabriel Dumont the Prince of the Prairies; more than 7 000 Chinese workers toiling and dying in the canyons of the Fraser Valley; and many more land sharks construction geniuses politicians and entrepreneurs all of whom played a role in the founding of the new Canada west of Ontario. From the Trade Paperback edition.