The People's Road: On the Trail of the Newfoundland Railway

Melvin Baker is an archivist and historian at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, and the co-editor of Dictionary of Newfoundland and
Labrador Biography.

This book recounts the author’s 1993 walk across the island of
Newfoundland along what was once the 547-mile roadbed of the
province’s railway. What began as a “vast wilderness trek” quickly
became a mission to preserve the railbed as a provincial trailway park.
In this daily account of his walk, Kearley rails against loggers,
construction companies, and even a local telephone company for
“uprooting trees and displacing boulders, like the path from some huge
underground monster.”

During his trek, Kearley encounters former railway employees who
describe life and work along the line and others who take him into their
homes and offer rest and meals. The walk becomes a “journey through
the scattered backyards and neighbourhoods of Newfoundland, a hike down
the main street of a long thin community.”