Outlaws of Western Canada

Canadian outlaws?
The American interviewer was dumbfounded. Like many of his countrymen he'd been raised on the Wild West lore of movies and television; the very idea that Canada had its own version of the wild and woolly West, with its own outlaws and lawmen, simply astounded him.
Train robberies, stagecoach holdups, shoot-outs, lost loot and heroic lawmen: all were part of the Canadian western frontier and contributed in their unique way to our rich heritage.
Several of our more colourful desperadoes had originally practised their trade below the border: "Bulldog" Kelly, Boone Helm, Bill Miner, Jack Dubois and Henry Wagner the 'Flying Dutchman.' But others, such as the wild McLean boys, Almighty Voice and Simon Gun-An-Noot, were native Canadiansand every bit as colourful and exciting as their American counterparts.
But the record speaks for itself. Years after he first worked as an express agent in Fort Yale, retired journalist D.W. Higgins wrote two books based upon his first and second hand memories, among them those heady days of the Fraser River gold rush and the start of the even richer Cariboo diggings.
Most of them were honest and hardworking, drawn by the hope of striking it rich in an age when most men had to work themselves to the grave with little hope of enjoying a comfortable retirement. But there were the inevitable exceptions. As Higgins noted, "A worse set of cut-throats and all-round scoundrels than those who flocked to Yale from all parts of the world never assembled anywhere."

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