Alright, this is the sequel to The National Dream which I reviewed not too long ago. That book was all about the prep work over the entire decade of the 1870s that laid the foundation for building the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the longest transcontinental railroad in the world at the time. This book is about the actual construction and the political and economic machinations that went on during the four years that the railroad was being built. And it is a wild story.
A quick summary, taken from the Penguin Books website:
In the four years between 1881 and 1885, Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Last Spike reconstructs the incredible story of how some 2,000 miles of steel crossed the continent in just five years — exactly half the time stipulated in the contract. Pierre Berton recreates the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking: the railway on the brink of bankruptcy, with one hour between it and ruin; the extraordinary land boom of Winnipeg in 1881–1882; and the epic tale of how William Van Horne rushed 3,000 soldiers over a half-finished railway to quell the Riel Rebellion.
Dominating the whole saga are the men who made it all possible — a host of astonishing characters: Van Horne, the powerhouse behind the vision of a transcontinental railroad; Rogers, the eccentric surveyor; Onderdonk, the cool New Yorker; Stephen, the most emotional of businessmen; Father Lacombe, the black-robed voyageur; Sam Steele, of the North West Mounted Police; Gabriel Dumont, the Prince of the Prairies; more than 7,000 Chinese workers, toiling and dying in the canyons of the Fraser Valley; and many more — land sharks, construction geniuses, politicians, and entrepreneurs — all of whom played a role in the founding of the new Canada west of Ontario.
That sums it up more succinctly than I could. Below is the famous picture of the last spike being driven in by Donald Smith.
I really enjoyed this book; it is a great read. Berton is a master storyteller who makes the most common of men look like extraordinary heroes in what they do, even if it's just laying track across the trackless wastes of the Canadian Shield or blasting holes in the side of a mountain to make a tunnel. And he doesn't stint on the big names involved, either; Sir John A. MacDonald, Prime Minister of Canada at the time, spent most of the four years of construction trying desperately to find funding to keep the railway afloat. Had he failed at any time, it was likely that the railroad would never have been finished, at least not under Canadian control. Berton makes you feel the desperation and stress the PM was under, as well as the triumphant relief when the railroad funding was finally secured.
For students of Canadian history, I heartily recommend both of these books. They were written over fifty years ago; some of the men Berton writes about would have still been alive when he was a boy, and it's entirely possible that he met some of them in person. If not, he certainly would have been able to meet their children and grandchildren to get further details. After all, Berton wrote this book exactly 100 years after the saga began in 1871. In fact, he refers to the '70s and '80s in this book with the implicit understanding that he's talking about the 1870s and 1880s, simply because the 1970s and 80s hadn't happened yet.
Next on my reading list is Berton's Klondike, which tells the tale of the last gold rush in North America. I've gotten a few chapters in so far, and it's just as interesting. Even moreso, I think, because Berton was actually born in the Yukon only a quarter-century after the gold rush, so he certainly would have encountered some of the people he writes about. When I'm done, I'll let you know what I thought of it.
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