Capturing sacred BC mountain experiences

My Soul Lives in these Mountains: A Collection of Stories, Poems and Paintings of the Chilliwack Cascades — Land of the Ts’elxwéyeqw
by Peter D. Scott

Surrey: Hancock House, 2024
$24.95  /  9780888397881

Reviewed by Ron Dart

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Many are the books that describe a variety of hikes, climbs, scrambles and off-path treks in BC, but rare is the book that deals with an in-depth reflection on a specific region in BC – such is the compelling attraction of this book, the subtitle the map of the book A Collection of Stories, Poems, & Paintings of the Chilliwack Cascades. Those who live in the area and have done most of the hikes and climbs, as I have, certainly understand how our soul could live in such mountains.

I was fortunate to chat with Peter Scott before writing this review, to gather more background and history to the book not included in this generous overview of significant years of life spent in the Chilliwack Cascades. It’s a combination of “Stories” that cover a multitude of First Nations myths, Scott’s formative years in the Chilliwack Cascades, and the 1978-1979 combination of Chilliwack Search and Rescue-RCMP project to discover old trails and build new ones, Scott the project manager, told in exquisite short chapter reading details, made for an immersion in local mountain life. The short biography speaks much: “Peter Scott was born in Chilliwack in 1956 and raised in Sardis. He grew up in the shadow of the Chilliwack Cascade Mountains, where he spent much of his youth hiking, camping, sketching and painting.” Needless to say, Peter writes of what he intimately knows. Chilliwack-Sardis today is not the small town it once was but the mountains and lure of them remain the same (for a new generation).

The 36 chapters in My Soul Lives in these Mountains combine a series of linked stories, poems and paintings that makes this book a finely threaded together collection of geology, history, amusing treks taken, research done as part of the larger project for Chilliwack Search and Rescue-RCMP and a valuable telling of the three fatal airplane crashes in the area. Many are the tales told of meetings with a diversity of wildlife, old trapper cabins, mines, and long-lingering nights under lamplight. Each chapter (mostly short) fills in many an often-unknown part of the history of the mountains from a variety of angles (both geologic and human interaction). The short poems that are often coupled with must read chapters sum up, in sensitive depth, a way of seeing such mountain life in the Chilliwack Cascade Mountains.

The obvious keeper in My Soul Lives in these Mountains is the generous collection of paintings done by Peter of the Cascade Mountains: Cheam Range,  Border Peaks, Four Sisters, Lady Peak, Mount Tomyhoi, The Still, Lucky Four, McGuire, Isolation, MacFarlane, Rexford, Williams, Liumchen, Slesse, Webb, Red Mountain, and many others including Chilliwack-Cultus Lake (many myths worth the reading about in both lakes)  Peter, rightly so, gives the nod to Neil Grainger, who hired him to be the project manager and Grainger’s mountain project that birthed the compact beauty of a book, The Mountain Project. I remember, with much fondness, meeting with Neil and Jack Bryceland (who shaped 103 Hikes in Southwestern British Columbia through many editions) a couple of decades ago to discuss his vision to link the naming of the peaks in the area with men killed in the Second World War. The paintings done by Peter are, in many ways, a book in and of themselves; so much spoken in the visual voice.

Peter studied art at UBC and he gives his respected nod to those who have shaped and inspired him such as Emily Carr, Bill Reid, Toni Onley, Robert Genn, Don MacIntosh and Gordon A. Smith (UBC artistic mentors). Peter also studied, in 1983, at the Emily Carr School of Art and Design when on Granville Island.  It is quite evident, when sitting with Peter’s paintings, to see the obvious impact of such guides in his unique, dramatic, and dynamic approach to mountain sketches and paintings.

Scott also notes his decision, for a variety of reasons, including historic family connections in the area, to move to Quesnel to teach for 30 years. I was taken by some of his chapters on Quesnel, Wells, Bowron Lakes, and Barkerville as I have spent some splendid time in the area. The small town of Wells hosts an annual arts school where my wife regularly attends harp classes where some of the finest harpists converge for a week. It was at the Wells Arts School that Peter took art classes with Robert Genn. I was in Wells a few weeks ago with my wife for a harp class, visited the museum there and found a collector’s item film, “1939 BC Ski Championships,” Wells the centre of ski jumping in the 1930s. But, to the review again.

Peter brings his evocative book to an end with aspects of First Nations wisdom, his relationships and relatives via intermarriage, although Peter does not come from a First Nations family. But such broader connections do inform his poetry, painting, and ways of how to interpret mountain life and its impact on history and communities as they live through the various seasons of the journey.

My Soul Lives in these Mountains is a beauty of a book that integrates various approaches to the Chilliwack Cascade Mountains: 1) myths of the mountains, 2) telling historic tales often not known of the mountains, 3) personal and confessional life and immersion in mountain life, 4) history of significant BC painters and their impact on Peter’s unique painting style, 5) photographs that aptly tell the unfolding story, 6) significant First Nations myths and intermarriage support and reasons why Peter’s soul does live in such mountains.

Needless to say, such a soul life, when duly understood, does beckon others to see how their soul might be enriched and deepened, by hearing such a call and summons. This is a must-have book for those interested in the layered life of the Chilliwack Cascade Mountains and its perennial appeal.

montani semper liberi

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Ron Dart has taught in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley since 1990. He was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s. He has published 40 books including Erasmus: Wild Bird (Create Space, 2017) and The North American High Tory Tradition (American Anglican Press, 2016). [Editor’s note: Ron Dart has recently reviewed books by Paul Zizka, Glenn Woodsworth & David Woodsworth, Marc Bourdon, Paul Zizka, John Baldwin, and Diane Kalen-Sukra for The British Columbia Review. He has also contributed five essays: Milton Acorn, Canadian mountain culture and mountaineering, From Jalna to Timber Baron: Reflections on the life of H.R. MacMillan, Roderick Haig-Brown & Al Purdy, and Save Swiss Edelweiss Village.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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