Camels once roamed the sagebrush-dotted hills around Kamloops. Their story is one of 30 in Kamloops author Elma Schemenauer’s new book YesterCanada: Historical Tales of Mystery and Adventure.
Published by Borealis Press of Ottawa, YesterCanada presents 30 historical tales spanning this great land and the centuries from the 1200s to the 1900s.
Here are a few of the mysteries you’ll find in its pages: Where in the icy Arctic is the lost Vancouver-based ship Baychimo? Who rang the chapel bell in Tadoussac, Quebec one foggy April night in 1782? Why did a Minnesota farmer abandon his farm, walk to Saskatchewan, and build an ocean-going ship far from any ocean?
In YesterCanada you’ll also meet adventurers like Ontario’s daring Lady Agnes, pious Nova Scotia pioneers, gold-seekers of Alberta, and the Manitoba Cree chief who gave his life for the woman he loved.
Elma Schemenauer says, “I love Canada and its history. I grew up in Saskatchewan, taught in Nova Scotia, and worked in publishing in Toronto for many years. I now live with my husband on a sagebrush-dotted hillside overlooking beautiful Kamloops, British Columbia.”
Elma is the author of 77 published books including the 1940s-era Saskatchewan Mennonite novel Consider the Sunflowers, also published by Borealis Press.
YesterCanada is a 248-page paperback including 30 illustrations and a bibliography, ISBN 978-0-88887-650-8, $19.95. Ask for it in a store or library. Or order online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo, or Borealis Press. E-book coming later. For more about Elma Schemenauer, go to: http://elmams.wix.com/elma.