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Books in The Canada West Historical Series series

  • Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail

    Lewis Hector Garrard

    Hardcover (Porcupine Press, March 15, 1974)
    None
  • Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail,

    Lewis Hector Garrard

    Paperback (The Arthur H. Clark company, March 15, 1938)
    None
  • West to the Bay

    Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

    Paperback (BWL Publishing Inc., Nov. 17, 2018)
    In 1750, Thomas Gunn, along with three friends, join the Hudson's Bay Company and sail from Stromness on the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland to York Factory fort on Hudson's Bay. They believe they are starting a new and exciting life in what is called Rupert's Land, but tragedy follows them, striking for the first time on the ship. At the fort Thomas finds his older brother, Edward, who had joined four years earlier. He also meets Little Bird, sister of Edward's wife, and her family.During the first year Thomas takes part in the goose and duck hunts, the fishing, the woodcutting, Guy Fawkes Day, the Christmas celebrations, and the burial of a friend. He also deals with the snowfall, the cold, the boredom, and a suicide, and learns how to survive in the lonely and sometimes inhospitable land.Five Star Review from Amazon CanadaI can't imagine many boys at fifteen years of age leaving their families to go work overseas in a foreign land on the other side of the world for five years. Yet they did in the 1700's. So begins Thomas Gunn's journey into manhood. Meanwhile native girl, Little Bird, is old enough to become married and must begin picking a husband soon and starting her family, only none of the native men appeal to her. So begins the love between these two, what we would call kids today, but back then were already adults in a harsh world that left no room for the weak. Joan does excellent at portraying the two very different worlds, both long gone and the bitter reality of the 1700's and even better at the blossoming love between Little Bird and Thomas. A must read for historical buffs, be prepared to be thrust into a past that created strong characters, where survival was never remotely guaranteed and where finding your true love even harder.
  • West to Grande Portage

    Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

    Paperback (BWL Publishing Inc., Nov. 18, 2018)
    On his sixteenth birthday Phillipe Chabot is told that his brother-in-law has hired him to be a voyageur. He will be paddling west from Montreal to Grade Portage to trade supplies with the Indians for furs. He is overjoyed and receives all the appropriate clothing from his family as birthday gifts, even a tobacco pouch.As the loaded canoe brigade gets ready to leave, his cousin, Jeanne, accepts the proposal of marriage yelled at her by the clerk who is going along to keep track of the trading.Unfortunately, disaster strikes the brigade as the men paddle the rivers, make their portages, and get onto the sometimes violent and unforgiving Lake Superior. In Montreal, the city is ravished by a fire and many people die.