FACING THE FRONTIER

This 1897 photograph of Payne Bluff, where “sensitive” train passengers were advised to look away from the steep precipice, demonstrates the oftenextreme terrain through which railways were built in British Columbia. The photograph made by R.H. Trueman shows the Kaslo & Slocan line near Sandon, B.C., and is one of hundreds reproduced in Iron Road West: An Illustrated History of British Columbia’s Railways, by geographer Derek Hayes (Harbour Publishing, 240 pages, $44.95). In this book, Hayes reveals how railways contributed to British Columbia’s development as well as to the province’s entry into Confederation, and he describes both the fierce competition and the frontier environment during their construction.