The Way We Were

The heart of this fresh and eclectic look at BC's history is an enormously popular 11-part series that ran in the Vancouver Province newspaper late in 1999. Starting with the years before the Europeans arrived, the book chronicles the life and times of BC through the decades, with plenty of photographs from public and private archives in large and small BC centres, and from the family collections of Province readers, to give astonishing and never-before-seen testimony to the changing times.

Here is the chronicle of the triumphs, disasters and curious events that make BC unique: the coming of the camels-the strangest pack animals ever used to work BC's goldfields, the amazing giant-tree hoax and the raging infernos that reduced early cities such as New Westminster, Vancouver and Barkerville to smoking ruins. Readers can revisit the building of the Lions Gate Bridge in 1938; the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in 1958, when 18 ironworkers were killed; the war years, when BC children learned how to wear gas masks and Japanese Canadians were sent to internment camps; the mega-projects from the dam-building of the 1950s to the phenomenal success of Expo 86 - all with international context. From Fort St. John to Cranbrook, Victoria's Chinatown to Vancouver's West End, B.C. has had an amazing journey to the new millennium, growing in a world that witnessed the sinking of the Titanic, two devastating world wars, and the spectacle of human beings walking on the moon.

Accompanying the photos is a lively and engaging commentary, which offers a run-down of the noteworthy events for each decade and a "millennium notebook" timeline for each year. Sidebars feature everything from pop-culture icons like Barbie to obituaries of important leaders and personalities to notables in films and books. The years' most entertaining and clever letters to the editors are compiled at the end of each decade, offering an often hilarious firsthand account of the events and people that mark B.C.'s journey to the new millennium.

Explore the way we were in this fresh approach to B.C. history, brimming with unbelievable archival photos, never-before-seen images and unique snapshots from across the pacific province. The perfect keepsake for visitors, newcomers, lifelong British Columbians and history buffs of all description.