From California to North 52

Nora D.S. Robins is the co-ordinator of internal collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

From California to North 52° is the story of Todd and Eldon Lee and
their life in the Cariboo district of British Columbia. They were 6 and
5, respectively, when their grandfather announced that they and their
extended family were leaving Sacramento and moving to Canada to live on
a cattle ranch. The trip took three weeks. Pavement ended at the
Canadian border, and the highway north became a dusty, often single-lane
washboard track. On June 13, 1929, they arrived at Sunnyside Ranch on
Coldspring Creek, their home for the next 20 years.

Black-and-white photographs enliven this account of life on a remote
ranch, of being schooled at home and learning to shoot, trap, and ride.
Todd and Eldon tell about the people who touched their lives: Johnson,
the Remittance Man; Old Annie Basil; Kamloops Louis and his wife,
Angelina; and the Raleigh Man. They also talk about their favorite
animals, especially Old Babs, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby.

This lively and entertaining memoir provides a wonderful picture of
frontier life in the early to middle 20th century.