Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada

Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada

by Roy MacGregor
Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada

Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada

by Roy MacGregor

eBook

$13.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Expanding on his landmark Globe and Mail series in which he documented his travels down sixteen of Canada's great rivers, Roy MacGregor tells the story of our country through the stories of its original highways, and how they sustain our spirit, identity and economy—past, present and future.

No country is more blessed with fresh water than Canada. From the mouth of the Fraser River in BC, to the Bow in Alberta, the Red in Manitoba, the Gatineau, the Saint John and the most historic of all Canada's rivers, the St. Lawrence, our beloved chronicler of Canadian life, Roy MacGregor, has paddled, sailed and traversed their lengths, learned their stories and secrets, and the tales of centuries lived on their rapids and riverbanks. He raises lost tales, like that of the Great Tax Revolt of the Gatineau River, and reconsiders histories like that of the Irish would-be settlers who died on Grosse Ile and the incredible resilience of settlers in the Red River Valley. Along the Grand, the Ottawa and others, he meets the successful conservationists behind the resuscitation of polluted wetlands, including Toronto's Don, the most abused river in Canada. In the Mackenzie River Valley he witnesses the Dehcho First Nation's effort to block a pipeline they worry endangers the region's lifeblood.

Long before our national railroad was built, rivers held Canada together; in these sixteen portraits, filled with yesterday's adventures and tomorrow's promise, MacGregor weaves together a story of Canada and its ongoing relationship with its most precious resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780307361400
Publisher: Random House of Canada, Limited
Publication date: 11/14/2017
Sold by: Random House
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 56 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

ROY MACGREGOR is the acclaimed and bestselling author of Home Team: Fathers, Sons and Hockey (shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award); A Life in the Bush (winner of the US Rutstrum Award for Best Wilderness Book and the CAA Award for Biography); and bestsellers Northern Light, Canoe Country and Original Highways; as well as two novels, Canoe Lake and The Last Season, and the popular Screech Owls mystery series for young readers. A longtime columnist for the Globe and Mail and numerous other newspapers and magazines, MacGregor won four National Magazine Awards and two National Newspaper Awards. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was described in the citation as one of Canada's "most gifted storytellers."

Table of Contents

Highways

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Canada's Original Highway: the St. Lawrence 13

Chapter 2 Priceless and Precarious: the Ottawa 31

Chapter 3 Rising from the DEAD: the Don 55

Chapter 4 "Symbol of Life": The Mighty Fraser 69

Chapter 5 "We Are Red River People" 89

Chapter 6 Water Wonder of the World: the Niagara 107

Chapter 7 "The Rhine of North America": the Saint John 125

Chapter 8 The Mackenzie: River of Disappointment or Hope 139

Chapter 9 Return to Splendour: the Grand 159

Chapter 10 Stresses along the bow 179

Chapter 11 Tax Revolts and Independence: the Gatineau 197

Chapter 12 Colonel by's Amazing Feat: the Rideau River And Canal 215

Chapter 13 River of Politics: the Columbia 229

Chapter 14 "Water is Life": the North Saskatchewan 243

Chapter 15 Cottage Country Beauty and Battles: The Muskoka 259

Chapter 16 Whitewater Escape on the Dumoine 277

Epilogue 301

Acknowledgements 311

Endnotes 313

Index 327

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews