Prince George, B.C. – Opening the majority of Canada to non-native population and development was the direct result of the expansion of the railway west, and that especially holds true for north-central B.C. and the many communities that sprang up between McBride and Prince George. You may not see them today, but there were here, and they were vibrant.

Local author Ray Olson has researched and provided detail about these communities and the people who lived in them in his book entitled “Ghost Towns on the East Line”, which he is launching today with excerpt readings and book signings at the Railway and Forestry Museum.

“Primarily what I’ve done is written about all of the communities that were established on the East Line between Prince George and McBride” says Olson. “I determined how they were named, when they were started and what happened in the communities over the years, and now there’s nothing left of any of them.” He explains that “when the Grand Trunk Pacific started out they had obtained from the government a number of properties, I think one hundred and eighty properties, to build stations as they moved westward. And they built eighteen stations starting in 1913. These stations were, on average, about eight to ten miles apart. That morphed over the years and Penny was added in late 1914, Sinclair Mills was added, Crescent Spur was added and so on.”

“The railway came west and what they wanted to do was capitalize on potential markets going through Canada. CP Rail, when B.C. joined confederation one of the conditions was a railway. Yellowhead Pass was surveyed as it went through the mountains and into the western province, if you will. But CP went south along the border to discourage American penetration into British Columbia. The Grand Trunk railway, a subsidiary, used the Yellowhead Pass and came into the north-central part .” Olson says while settlement of northern B.C. would have eventually come about anyway, it would not have occurred in the early 1900s had it not been for the railway.

The author says some of these eighteen communities grew to quite a size for their time. “Guilford for one, which existed until the 1930s, had a population of probably 650 people. And Penny and Sinclair Mills, they were quite large communities while some of the other ones basically had a (four-man) section crew working there to look after the rail line. Add a few loggers in the area and it would make up a settlement as such.”

Olson says one of the things that tweaked his interest and led to writing the book “is I grew up on the East Line and worked in a number of these places. And there was always a mix of Europeans, many, many nationalities and you always wonder where they came from and why. And basically they came from all over Europe to work on the railway. And in conjunction with the railway coming through, the government passed an act that gave immigrants a hundred and sixty acres of western land if they lived on it for three years and paid a $10.00 registration fee.”

So, we asked Olson, what brought about the demise of the eighteen communities between Prince George and McBride? “Basically what happened is, Northwood had a lot to do with it and basically just technology changes and dealing on an international market because the timber was the economic driver, it spurred all the development in that area.” He also says when Highway 16 went through it allowed the trucking of logs to mills in Prince George and the truckers were no longer supporting these communities.”

“One of the things that happened in a lot of these communities that had a strong union influence in them, men could live in the bunkhouse in these communities for $1.35 a day and eat in the cookhouse. The union, of course, wanted to keep that in effect and were successful in getting that in their contract. The companies realized that you can’t afford to house and feed a man for a buck-35 a day. Some of these were 40 to 50-man bunkhouses and the cookhouses fed a hundred people. So eventually what happened was the bunkhouses were shut down and men were bussed out of Prince George to go to work on a daily basis. Economically it was more attractive to do that.”

Of course that led to the communities dwindling in population and eventually dying. Olson says he has written his book to preserve a record and memories of communities that played such a vital role in the history of this region.

Ray Olson will be on hand to sign copies of his book, read some selections from it and show some slides from 12 until 4pm today at the Railway and Forestry Museum. He will also be at University Hospital from 10 am to 2pm on December 4^th, and will be at Books and Company on December 5^th.