Bannock and Beans

In 1934, in the middle of the Great Depression, millionaire Charles Bedaux spent $250,000 in an attempt to cross northern British Columbia in five motorized vehicles. The Bedaux Expedition ranks as one of the most audacious and unusual events in the province’s history. Bannock & Beans tells the story of this extravagant failure from the perspective of one of the cowboys who worked on Bedaux’s team. Bob White’s reminiscences, recounted in the tradition of the cowboy storyteller, describe the hardships of cutting trails and hauling supplies on horseback, the beauty of the wilderness landscape and many of the unique aspects of the expedition. Bannock and Beans also reveals the complex character of the expedition’s leader, Charles Bedaux, a French entrepreneur who made his fortune in the United States. The book includes White’s experiences in Bedaux’s attempts to develop a ranch in northern BC after the expedition. Editor Jay Sherwood supplements with original Bedaux Expedition correspondence and photographs to show Bedaux’s strong attachment to the remote wilderness area of northern BC from 1926 to 1939.
Bannock and Beans provides new information and a fresh perspective on this unique event in BC’s history. White’s memoirs take us back to the campfire stories of people who were part of the vast wilderness that still covered much of the northern part of the province 75 years ago.

Author Biography

Bob White (1902-86) was a career cowboy, born and raised in the remote Cypress Hills region of southwestern Saskatchewan. As a young man, White yearned for adventure, so headed west with a friend and ended up trapping and working on pack trains in northern BC, where he was hired to work for Charles Bedaux. In 1983, long after he had returned to Saskatchewan, White wrote his account of the Bedaux Expedition. Jay Sherwood, a historian and former surveyor,is the author of several books about Frank Swannell, includingSurveying Northern British Columbia(a 2005 BC Book Prize finalist) andSurveying Central British Columbia(second-prize winner in the 2007 BC Historical Federation Writing Competition). He lives in Vancouver, where he works as a teacher-librarian.