راه‌آهن غیرممکن: ساخت راه‌آهن اقیانوس آرام کانادا

IN 1871, a tiny nation-just four years old, its population well below the four million mark-deterinined that it would build the world 's longest and costliest railroad across 2500 miles of empty and forbidding country, much of it unexplored, most of it unpopulated. This decision, bold to the point of recklessness, was to alter the future and the shape of the nation and to change the lives of every Canadian then and for a century to come. For fourteen years - from the dispatch of the first survey parties into the wilderness above Lake Superior and high into the unknown peaks of the Canadian Rockies until the driving of the last spike at Craigellachie on the western slope of Glacier National Park in 1885-the struggle to build the Canadian Pacific Raihvay fascinated, convulsed, consumed, threatened, and finally unified the entire young nation. During these turbulent years, Canadians and many Americans-of every stripe fought for the railway or against it. Their tale is crammed with human drama beyond the reach of fiction: financial scandal and double-dealing that threatened the Government in Ottawa and shook the money markets in New York and London, land speculation and swindles that brought boom and bust to prairie villages, an alcoholic Prime Minister able to dominate an unruly parliament, armed rebellion in Manitoba, the development of the North West Mounted Police, surveyors wintering in fifty-foot snowdrifts, prostitutes, gamblers, and bootleggers carousing in the construction camps, while thousands of Chinese laborers toiled - and often died - to force a right of way through the majestic but unyielding country of the North West. Until, ultimately, the almost incredible feat of flinging 2500 miles of steel across a continent in less than five years was accomplished. Pierre Berton's magnificent reconstruction of this heroic saga, based on unpublished manuscripts, diaries, and letters, as well as on public documents, newspapers of the time, and ot her primary sources, is an important contribution to history as weil as a book that will bring to life for every reader a great adventure and the all-too human figures who lived it. --- **PIERRE BERTON** is Canada's premier journalist, at home in all media-magazines, newspapers, books, and television . He is also the country's best-selling author, with an unprecedented trio of Governor General's Awards ( equivalent to the U. S. Pulitzer Prize) to his credit. His history of the Gold Rush, The Klondike Fever, is considered the definitive ,vork on that subject, and the National Film Board documentary City of Gold, which he wrote and narrated, has won sorne forty international awards, including the Grand Prix at Cannes. Mr. Berton also holds two National Newspaper awards and the Stephen Leacock medal for humor. He is the father of seven children and lives with his family in Kleinburg, Ontario, not far from Toronto. Front Cover Front Flap THE ROUTE OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY: 1885 Books by PIERRE BERTON Half Title Page Full Title Page Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Contents List of Illustrations Illustrations (Following Page 202) Illustrations (Following Page 394) Maps Cast of Major Characters THE POLITICIANS THE PATHFINDERS THE ENTREPRENEURS THE CPR SYNDICATE THE BUILDERS THE NATIVE PEOPLES THE BYSTANDERS CANADA BEFORE THE C P R : 1871 From Sea to Sea 1 1 An "act of insane recklessness" 2 The dreamers 3 "Canada is dead" 4 The struggle for the North West 5 The land beyond the lakes PRAIRIE TRAILS AND EXPLORATIONS 6 Ocean to Ocean FLEMING'S ROUTE (OCEAN TO OCEAN): 1871 7 The ordeal of the Dawson route THE DAWSON ROUTE 2 1 Poor Waddington 2 Sir Hugh Allan's shopping spree 3 The downfall of Cartier 4 George McMullen's blackmail 3 1 Lucius Huntington's moment in history 2 Scandal! 3 The least satisfactory royal commission 4 Battle stations 5 Macdonald versus Blake 4 1 "Hurra! The jolly C.P.S. !" 2 The bitter tea of Walter Moberly WALTER MOBERLY'S COUNTRY 3 That "old devil" Marcus Smith 5 1 Lord Carnarvon intervenes THE BATTLE OF THE ROUTES 2 "The horrid B.C. business" 3 The Battle of the Routes 6 1 The first locomotive FLEMING'S SURVEY: 1877 2 Adam Oliver's favorite game GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS, CPR 3 The stonemason's friends 4 "Mean, treacherous coward !" 7 1 Resurrection 2 "Get rid of Fleming" 3 Bogs without bottom 4 Sodom-on-the-Lake 8 1 Jim Hill's Folly THE ST. PAUL AND PAC IFIC RAILWAY: 1873 2 "Donald Smith is ready to take hold" 3 Enter George Stephen 4 A railway at bargain rates 5 The Syndicate is born 9 1 "Capitalists of undoubted means" 2 Success! 3 The Contract 4 The Great Debate begins 5 The "avenging fury" 6 Macdonald versus Blake again 7 The dawn of the new Canada 10 1 The end and the beginning 2 How John Macoun altered the map THE CHANGE OF ROUTE: 1881 3 The first of the CPR towns THE PRAIRIE LINE: 1881 4 The "paid ink-slingers" 5 Enter Van Horne 11 1 The great Winnipeg boom 2 Fool's paradise 3 "Towns cannot live of themselves" THE LAND BOOM: 1881-82 4 The bubble bursts 12 1 The new broom 2 Five hundred miles of steel 3 End of Track 4 Edgar Dewdney's new capital REGINA: 1882-83 5 The Grand Trunk declares war 13 1 "Hell's Bells Rogers" THE SELKIRKS BEFORE THE CPR THE FAR WEST BEFORE THE CPR 2 On the Great Divide THE ROCKIES BEFORE THE C P R 3 The major finds his pass 4 The Prairie Gopher 5 "The loneliness of savage mountains" 14 1 Onderdonk's lambs THE ONDERDONK CONTRACTS 2 "The beardless children of China" 3 Michael Haney to the rescue 15 1 The Prornised Land THE PRAIRIE LINE: TO 1883 2 Prohibition 3 The magical infiuence 4 George Stephen's disastrous gamble 5 The CPR goes political 16 1 The arrnored shores of Lake Superior 2 Treasure in the rocks THE LINE IN THE EAST 3 The Big Hill THE KICKING HORSE PASS: 1884 4 "The ablest railway general in the world" BURRARD INLET: 1884-85 5 The Pacific terminus 6 Not a dollar to spare 7 The edge of the precipice 17 1 Eighteen eighty-five THE ROGERS PASS: 1884-85 2 The return of the Messiah THE SASKATCHEWAN REBELLION: 1885 3 "I wish I were well out of it" 4 Marching as to war THE C P R IN ONTARIO: TO 1885 GAPS IN THE LINE: MARCH, 1885 5 The cruel journey 18 1 The Westerner is born 2 Stephen throws in the towel THE C P R IN QUEBEC: TO 1885 3 Riot at Beavermouth 4 The eleventh hour 5 A land no longer lonely 6 The last spike Aftemath CHRONOLOGY, NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND INDEX Chronology 1871 1872, 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 Notes FROM SEA TO SEA, CHAPTER 1, CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6, CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 Bibliography UNPUBLISHED SOURCES PUBLIC DOCUMENTS CANADA SIR SANDFORD FLEMlNG BRITISH COLUMBIA UNITED STATES NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS PUBLISHED SOURCES Acknowledgments Index A Note About the Author A Note on the Type Back Flap Back Cover (PIERRE BERTON) First Published In 2 V. Under Titles: The National Dream (1970) And The Last Spike (1971) Bibliography: P. 565-574.