Christmas in British Columbia
Heart-warming Legends, Tales, and Traditions
AUTHOR: Rich Mole
FORMAT: 5.5 x 8.5 pb / 128 pages
ISBN-10:1-55153-786-9
ISBN-13: 9781551537863
Christmas is a time for celebrating with friends and family and for sharing
stories, memories, and good cheer. This compilation brings to life the very
best holiday stories from across British Columbia. From the early days of exploration
to the modern day, and from heartwarming inspirational tales to dangerous escapades,
this is a collection to treasure for many years to come.
Prologue
"We proceeded on up the lake, and the ice didn't appear to
be too sound or too safe, so I kept testing it. I'd go ahead possibly
50 or 60 yards and I'd take the axe to get the thickness of
the ice."
It was Christmas Day, 1919, in the frozen wilderness just
west of what is now Burns Lake. Trappers Cliff Harrison and
his brother Bill decided they'd had enough isolation. They
gathered their furs, tied them up on the sleigh together with a
boat, and set out on frozen White Sail Lake.
"We got up about a mile, possibly a mile and a half
and the ice appeared to me to be getting very, very clear,"
Cliff recalled.
Then, suddenly...
"Everything just exploded. Great sheets of ice broke up in
front of me and in I went!"
It was -30 degrees Celsius when Cliff Harrison's body
knifed through the frigid waters of the lake. As his brother
raced up with the sleigh, Cliff had the presence of mind to roll
over onto a large cake of broken ice. Miraculously, the ice held
his body. Within moments his brother was piling furs on top
of him and began pushing the sleigh across the frozen lake
toward shore.
"We've got to get to shore as quickly as we can," Cliff
gasped to his brother, "because I can't live very long. Bill, I
know that I'm going..."
For Cliff Harrison and his brother Bill, the desperate race
against time and the elements on this terror-filled Christmas
Day had only just begun.
About the Author
BC-born author Rich Mole has enjoyed an eclectic communications
career, as a former broadcaster, a freelance journalist,
and, for 20 years, the president of a successful Vancouver
Island advertising agency. A lifelong fascination with history
has fuelled his desire to write about the times and people of
Canada's past. Rich now makes his home in Calgary, Alberta.
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