Fire Canoe - 2nd Edition by Ted Barris (Hardcover)

About the Book

Years before railroads arrived, the Canadian West was opened up by an unlikely breed of ship: steamboats plying Prairie waterways. Their aboriginal pilots, experts at reading the tricky waterways, called the ships "fire canoes." By day they chased freight contracts, but at night they introduced the Edwardian Prairies to pleasure cruises.

Book Synopsis

Years before railroads arrived, the Canadian West was opened up by an unlikely breed of ship: steamboats plying Prairie waterways. Their aboriginal pilots, experts at reading the tricky waterways, called the ships "fire canoes." By day they chased freight contracts, but at night they introduced the Edwardian Prairies to pleasure cruises.

Review Quotes

"[This book] will surprise Canadians who weren't aware that on the bald plains, riverboats once turned cities like Winnipeg, Prince Albert, and Edmonton into thriving ports."

"An exciting narrative of the extension of the Canadian frontier across the prairies ... with stories of over 100 steamboats that have never appeared in any other book."

"Barris's best subjects are the personalities of the era - those adventurous and eccentric steamboat captains, traders and pioneers ..."

"Ted Barris has done for the steamboat what Pierre Berton did for the railway ..."

"The book deserves a place in the library of those interested in the history and development of western Canada."

Fire Canoe pulls together first-hand accounts from wild characters of the Canadian Frontier, with all the gambling, rebellion and gold-seeking glory that surrounds the western waterways and the shops that sailed them - underscoring how it was steamboats, of all things that allowed massive expansion in a time before the railway arrived in the prairies.

Replete with enhanced photos and notes, along with scale maps, this is a timely reprint as Canada prepares to celebrate its 150th birthday in 2017.

About the Author

Ted Barris is an award-winning author, journalist, and broadcaster. For more than forty years his writing has appeared in the national press, as well as in history, news, and arts magazines, and he has authored seventeen non-fiction books. In 2014, his Globe and Mail national bestseller, The Great Escape received the national Libris Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award. He lives in Uxbridge, Ontario.