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Sternwheelers and Canyon Cats

Whitewater Freighting on the Upper Fraser

Jack Boudreau

Forbidding canyons, raging rapids and menacing rocks — this was the daily challenge that faced whitewater men who worked the wild rivers and creeks to bring freight and supplies to northern BC in the years before the Grand Trunk Railway. In particular, the Grand Canyon of British Columbia’s Fraser River was infamous for swallowing at least 200 luckless occupants of rafts and small craft between the years 1862″“1921. Sternwheelers and Canyon Cats: Whitewater Freighting on the Upper Fraser is the story of the “Canyon Cats” who made their living running the Grand Canyon and other equally dangerous waterways.