‘Our journey from past to present’
A Traveller’s Guide to Historic British Columbia (revised)
by Rosemary Neering
Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2023
$34.95 / 9781770503700
Reviewed by Valerie Green
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Now revised and updated, Rosemary Neering’s A Traveller’s Guide to Historic British Columbia is a fascinating historical journey through the province.
She begins the book with some powerful words: “More than 30 years ago, wandering the province for a book on small town life in B.C., I sat with one of the Ktunaxa band counsellors on the St. Mary’s reserve near Cranbrook. David talked about ‘that place over there’ —the hated residential school that dominated the centre of the reserve. He described the beatings, the deprivation—but he also described the traditions and rebirth of pride among the Ktunaxa.”
Neering goes on to say that in the intervening years, the Ktunaxa have reclaimed their traditions and their heritage within that old school. It is now a resort and heritage centre welcoming travellers into their world, allowing those visitors to understand the history of that region. This is just one of a plethora of stories about historic British Columbia within Neering’s revised book.
Neering begins her journey through the province on Vancouver Island, giving a captivating history of locations and old buildings from Victoria, Esquimalt and Sooke to Port Renfrew, the Saanich Peninsula and all the Southern Gulf Islands. She then takes Highway 1 north passing through Goldstream, the Cowichan Valley, and Ladysmith, to Parksville, and a side trip west to Port Alberni and Tofino. Nothing is omitted and her stories are intriguing.
North of Parksville, we learn the history of Qualicum and the two Islands (Denman and Hornby) lying offshore from Buckley Bay. The book also covers Courtenay, Comox, and Campbell River and then continues further north to a part of Vancouver Island not often visited. Neering’s meticulous historic research tells us stories we might not otherwise have known.
The Lower Mainland chapter of the book covers Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Hope, and into the Fraser Canyon. Again, Neering’s stories are tantalizing with many intriguing snippets such as those about Yale in the Fraser Canyon.
Yale was the head of navigation on the Fraser. Ahead lay the steep walls and turbulent waters of the canyon – and, after 1864, the Cariboo Road. In 1858, adventurer David Higgins described gold rush Yale as “the busiest and the worst town in the colony,” filled with both the God-fearing and the God-ignoring: gamblers, ruffians, drinkers, turncoats, highwaymen, thieves, murderers, and painted women.
The valleys of the Similkameen, Okanagan, and Shuswap were “the territories of First Nations that bore those names. They fished in the rivers, hunted over the hills, and traded at sites on the Similkameen and where Okanagan Lake narrows.”
Princeton, Summerland, and Peachland histories are also included in this section.
From Chapter 4 to Chapter 8, Neering travels from the West Kootenays, the Mountain Spine towards Alberta, the Interior Plateau, the Sunshine Coast (Langdale to Powell River), and on to Haida Gwaii, Skeena, and the Nass Valleys and finally to the North, from Prince George to Peace River Country and the Alaska Highway.
The book becomes a delightful combination of history book and travel guide as the journey continues. The index is thorough and a map at the beginning of the book helps to locate the areas described in each of the chapters with initials placed over the areas such VI (Vancouver Island), LM (Lower Mainland), IP (Interior Plateau and N (The North). This is a book readers will constantly refer to for both research and travel plans.
Of course, things are constantly changing so it is hard to accurately be completely up to date with the most current information on places, buildings, and locations. Neering, however, has successfully managed to keep the stories exciting and the landscape enticing despite change.
Rosemary Neering’s A Traveller’s Guide to Historic British Columbia is a book to be enjoyed by those who love this province and its history. Her words and descriptive passages are extremely enjoyable. She says: “So much remains to remind us of our journey from past to present. I hope this guide begins to document the evidence of the past and that it lures into new and rewarding explorations for those who love, as I do, wandering the back roads of history.” I am sure it will and I feel it will be treasured by both historians and travellers alike.
*
Valerie Green was born and educated in England, where she studied journalism and law. Her passion was always writing from the moment she first held a pen. After working at the world-famous Foyles Books in London (followed by a brief stint with MI5 and legal firms), she moved to Canada in 1968 and embarked on a long career as a freelance writer, columnist, and author of over twenty nonfiction historical and true-crime books. Hancock House recently released Tomorrow, the final volume of The McBride Chronicles (after Providence, Destiny, and Legacy). Now semi-retired (although writers never really retire!) she enjoys taking short road trips around BC with her husband, watching their two beloved grandsons grow up and, of course, writing. [Editor’s note: Valerie Green has recently reviewed books by Winona Kent, Michael L. Hadley, Jason A.N. Taylor, Johanna Van Zanten, DL Acken and Aurelia Louvet, and Carly Butler for The British Columbia Review.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-25: 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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