William Lowell Putnam

Spanning forty years, this book recreates the spirit of a golden age of exploration and travel when adventure-seeking men and women made grand tours into an unknown wilderness and alpinists, scientists, photographers, and tourists discovered for the first time the secrets of a great and varied land. In the mighty Selkirk Mountains of Canada lies Rogers Pass which was the scene of three major events in the history of North America: in 1884, it presented an enormous obstacle to the Canadian Pacific Railway in its drive to connect the new nation coast-to-coast; it became the site of the first modern, European-style resort hotel in the mountains; and it was the first locality to attract the attention of serious mountaineers from around the world. Putnam blends these three events and weaves them into an accurate early history of the region. He shares with us the heroic, often tragic, tale of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He takes us into the magnificent surroundings of the Great Glacier and we see the modest Glacier House develop through the years into a world- famous luxury hotel. And as the Rogers Pass Glacier area becomes the focal point in the fledgling sport of alpinism in North America, we join the earliest expeditions undertaken in the Selkirk Range. The focus of the book, however, is on the people whose paths cross at Glacier House -- and the author lets them tell their own stories. The personalities of the railroad executives and the hotel staff emerge from correspondence and reports. As a basis of much of the book, Putnam has included many firsthand accounts from the Glacier House register. Known as "The Scrapbook," it contains the handwritten accounts of virtually every notable climber and mountain explorer of the early era. Magnificent historical photographs, many of them never before published, exquisitely illustrate the book. The forty-year saga is vividly retold through these rare photographs of the scenes those early adventurers witnessed when they first visited the Great Glacier and its house.

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