HIGHWAY TRAVEL WRITER LORRIE FLEMING

SPEAK IN A SILENT LANGUAGE THAT WHISPERS SOFTLY INTO THE WINDS OF TIME

…Our History Speaks Through a Land of Braided Trails…

            Let’s all join hearts-to-hands with land-to-legends in celebration of our transportation network carved by the toil of our ancestral trail blazers & pioneers setting the course toward unlimited travel. Transcending gravel & grit churned into gold mixed with the aggregate will of human spirit, our land is hereditary by a blend of people with a purpose and a common sense of place to call ‘home’. 

Our shared cultural values woven into a westward migration is galvanized by a sense of wonderment and mutual respect in search of a new frontier.  The determination and hunger of these eager voyagers held the key to survival and the courage to set their future in motion into a vast landmass.  

Testament to the perseverance of those early pioneers, our two nations (Canada & USA) pay tribute & homage in their honor.  In September 2021 the calendar was marked in permanent ink to celebrate a Century Milestone of the ‘International Peace Arch Monument’ situated on the median between Blaine Washington and Surrey, BC, standing noble to protect humankind.  

Backtracking to our grassroots, the northern supply chain of the Oregon Trail Network (of 1856-68) and it’s early origins is deeply rooted into two nations.   The BC Grasslands became known as a prime cattle route recognized as the ‘Okanagan Trail’ and lies in the Okanagan Valley on both sides of the US Border.  The Oregon Territory was greatly valuable to both the US & Britain as a powerful economic driver.  American cattlemen and traders brought cattle, freight, and culture (a refined understanding of humankind) into the B.C. Interior and became the main supply corridor into the BC Gold Rush (of 1858 and onward).  The O’Keefe Ranch became a clearinghouse for the cattle to feed the multitude of miners and pioneers that permeated into the BC Goldfields.    

History portrays that BC was built on American economic might; however, lest we forget the First Nations Peoples that cultivated these trails over many thousands of years.  The Oregon Treaty of 1846 signed between the US and Britain set a national policy for a shared right of passage and speaks to the shared pasts of Canada & USA, 

 The Oregon Treaty of 1846 was the impetus of setting the US and British North American border at the 49^th Parallel.  Yes indeed, our history speaks through a silent language that echoes far beneath the borderless ground.  

Stretching the ‘Mother Lode’ of the BC Goldfields, spreading southbound to the Mother Road, our international connective hearts shape a long & winding umbilical cord into a bloodline galvanized by a shared cultural heritage.   Road trips are equivalent to human wings, may the energy of youth take flight and set our sights into the future…A paraphrase from “Travels with Charley In Search of America” by Master Literary John Steinbeck… “A journey is a person in itself, no two are alike, we do not take