A Ribbon of Shining Steel Read online

  Julie’s own grandfather, John Anderson, was among the many immigrants needed to keep the CPR running smoothly. He left Sweden in 1888 at the age of eighteen and started working for the railway in the Selkirk Mountains of B.C. By the early 1900s he had married a young Swedish immigrant and advanced to the position of Roadmaster, responsible for the section of track going through Rogers Pass — an area noted for its heavy snowfalls and avalanches.

  One of those avalanches almost took his life. “On the night of March 4, 1910, a huge avalanche came down at the summit of Rogers Pass and buried the railway tracks about thirty feet [ten metres] deep. My grandfather called out his crew of 63 men and they set off with torches and shovels to clear the tracks.

  “Around midnight, he left the site and hiked about a mile down the line to a watchman’s hut to phone in a progress report. He advised the dispatcher in Revelstoke that the tracks would be cleared in another couple of hours, then headed back. When he reached the site, all was in darkness. There were no lights from torches, no sounds of men digging, no sounds at all. Another avalanche had come down and buried everything. Only one man survived. The rest, including my grandfather’s younger brother, were buried in the avalanche. It was the worst disaster in the history of the CPR.”

  Julie is the award-winning author of numerous books for young readers. Her novels include White Jade Tiger (winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, and nominated for both the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award and the Silver Birch Award), Destination Gold and The Ghost of Avalanche Mountain. Among her acclaimed picture books are The Dragon’s Pearl, Emma and the Silk Train, Bear on the Train and Whatever You Do, Don’t Go Near That Canoe!

  While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Kate Cameron is a fictional character created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction.

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  Copyright © 2002 by Julie Lawson.

  Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd.

  SCHOLASTIC and DEAR CANADA and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan–American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read this e-book on-screen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 604 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1E1, Canada.

  ISBN: 978-1-4431-2814-8

  First eBook edition: July 2015

  Books in the Dear Canada Series

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  Alone in an Untamed Land, The Filles du Roi Diary of Hélène St. Onge by Maxine Trottier

  Banished from Our Home, The Acadian Diary of Angélique Richard by Sharon Stewart

  Blood Upon Our Land, The North West Resistance Diary of Josephine Bouvier by Maxine Trottier

  Brothers Far from Home, The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates by Jean Little

  A Christmas to Remember, Tales of Comfort and Joy

  A Country of Our Own, The Confederation Diary of Rosie Dunn by Karleen Bradford

  Days of Toil and Tears, The Child Labour Diary of Flora Rutherford by Sarah Ellis

  The Death of My Country, The Plains of Abraham Diary of Geneviève Aubuchon by Maxine Trottier

  A Desperate Road to Freedom, The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson by Karleen Bradford

  Exiles from the War, The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss by Jean Little

  Flame and Ashes, The Great Fire Diary of Triffie Winsor by Janet McNaughton

  Footsteps in the Snow, The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott by Carol Matas

  Hoping for Home, Stories of Arrival

  If I Die Before I Wake, The Flu Epidemic Diary of Fiona Macgregor by Jean Little

  No Safe Harbour, The Halifax Explosion Diary of Charlotte Blackburn by Julie Lawson

  Not a Nickel to Spare, The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen by Perry Nodelman

  An Ocean Apart, The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-ling by Gillian Chan

  Orphan at My Door, The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope by Jean Little

  Pieces of the Past, The Holocaust Diary of Rose Rabinowitz by Carol Matas

  A Prairie as Wide as the Sea, The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall by Sarah Ellis

  Prisoners in the Promised Land, The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

  A Rebel’s Daughter, The 1837 Rebellion Diary of Arabella Stevenson by Janet Lunn

  A Sea of Sorrows, The Typhus Epidemic Diary of Johanna Leary by Norah McClintock

  A Season for Miracles, Twelve Tales of Christmas

  That Fatal Night, The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton by Sarah Ellis

  A Time for Giving, Ten Tales of Christmas

  Torn Apart, The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi by Susan Aihoshi

  To Stand On My Own, The Polio Epidemic Diary of Noreen Robertson by Barbara Haworth-Attard

  A Trail of Broken Dreams, The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer by Barbara Haworth-Attard

  Turned Away, The World War II Diary of Devorah Bernstein by Carol Matas

  Where the River Takes Me, The Hudson’s Bay Company Diary of Jenna Sinclair by Julie Lawson

  Whispers of War, The War of 1812 Diary of Susannah Merritt by Kit Pearson

  Winter of Peril, The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge by Jan Andrews

  With Nothing But Our Courage, The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald by Karleen Bradford

  Go to www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada for information on the Dear Canada series — see inside the books, read an excerpt or a review, post a review, and more.