Frazer connected whiskey bootlegger Caribou Joe to real events that occurred between 1912 and 1913, as the Grand Trunk Pacific railway construction moved west from Alberta into B.C.
He wrote short episodes about Caribou Joe’s journey that were published in newspapers like the Fitzhugh and The Valley Sentinel, and now all the episodes can be found in Frazer’s newly released book.
In Caribou Joe and the Building of the Grand Trunk Pacific “you’re there experiencing all these wonderful and sometimes humorous things that took place during that time,” said Frazer.
Caribou Joe encounters many adventures and historical figures while “carrying the finest stump whiskey west of the Fitzhugh [Jasper].”
In one episode, Caribou Joe meets ladies from The Women’s Press Association of Canada who are on a field trip during their convention in Edmonton. They decided to charter the train and take it as far east as it could go at the time, to Tete Jaune, said Frazer. “All these women were writing their impressions. It would have been very interesting to have access to that train or read all of their notebooks to see what it was like.”
Through Caribou Joe, Frazer injects life back into the numerous whistle stops along the railroad.
“[Trains] had steam engines back then, so they had to have a water tower every so many miles so that the steam engines could stock up with more water to run the engine, which is why most of those little stations were built.”
Captivating visuals are also added throughout the book. “There are hundreds of photographs from all different archives and museums and there are 20 different artists that have helped illustrate different scenes in the story.”
Frazer hopes his book will not only entertain readers, but inspire their appetite for history and even encourage them to write and publish their own work because “it’s such a worthwhile and rewarding thing.”
Caribou Joe’s adventures aren’t over, Frazer is already working on a second book, Bound for the Bulkley Valley.
Caribou Joe and the Building of the Grand Trunk Pacific is available at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives and at the Fitzhugh office, above Subway.
It will also be available in McBride, Valemount, Dunster, Prince George, Smithers and Hazelton.
