Carving the Western Path: By River, Rail, and Road Through BC's Southern Mountains

A.A. den Otter is a professor of history at Memorial University of
Newfoundland and the author of The Philosophy of Railways.

Transport routes through the mountainous southern interior of British
Columbia always presented an enormous challenge to engineers,
contractors, and workers. The economic development of the interior
required thoroughfares, and, for national purposes, the B.C. Coast
needed connections to the rest of the country. Thus, steamship
facilities, railways, and roads had to be constructed, at whatever the
cost. But political, regional, and entrepreneurial rivalries and
interests worsened the complications that geological and other natural
obstacles placed in the way of railway and road builders.

R.G. Harvey makes a valiant attempt to unravel the intricate story. The
result is an interesting, even iconoclastic, summary of the events.
Based largely on secondary rather than primary sources, Carving the
Western Path adds little new knowledge to the history of railroading in
the region. Harvey’s account of road construction, however, is more
informative, particularly his histories of modern highways.

As a former civil servant in charge of highways in the B.C. interior,
Harvey’s favoring of highways over railways is understandable. Not
surprisingly, he is very critical of how railway companies ruined older
roads (like the one in the Fraser Canyon), thereby eliminating a
competitive transportation system for many years. Whether or not the
railways deliberately destroyed these roads is debatable; the result,
however, as Harvey describes it, is clearly evident.

Harvey attacks many conventional wisdoms in southern British
Columbia’s transportation history, including the folly of constructing
a railway through the Rogers Pass; the unwarranted, generous subsidies
to railway construction companies; and the waste in building the Big
Bend. The reader only wishes that the author had paid greater attention
to chronology, which would have made the stories easier to follow and
avoided repetition.