I love the sight and sound and feeling of flowing water, especially in smaller rivers and creeks where fish leap for the sky and shadows hold the gurgling riffles close in to shore.

In my writing, rivers are always close at hand. 

A Métis Man's Dream traces Gordon’s physical meanderings on the rivers, lakes and ocean of Canada's north but adds a figurative element, too; his life driven along by a sometimes silent, sometimes raging current, meeting ebbs and flows, rocks and barriers and the storms and high water that might confound any traveller.

My second book also reflects the power and metaphor of moving water, in this case Alberta's Red Deer River. I seek to tell of the river's rugged, and unique natural and geologic setting, from Banff National Park to the Saskatchewan border and to explore its historical and personal lessons through the eyes of a lawyer, city dweller, learner and fifth generation descendant of prominent western settlers.

I leave you, for now, with this description: "Gower's stories and memories follow the call of running water in his search for both white and Indigenous history, meaning through nature, and wisdom of time and place in the land of the dinosaurs."

More to come....

​News story on low water by Fort Good Hope.

​For a short review of the Mackenzie River and some photos that provide additional context for A Métis Man's Dream, check out this link!

Gordon had a call from an old friend, James Ross, former chief of the Fort MacPherson band and a colleague from their days on the board of directors of Sheetah Drilling. Ross apparently "loved the audio book" version of A Métis Man's Dream; From Traplines to Tugboats in Canada's North.

I am pleased to announce that Prairie Sky Books, 871 Westminster Ave, Winnipeg, has agreed to carry the deluxe, glossy colour edition of A Métis Man's Dream. While many Alberta and NWT shops and stores have been great supporters of the Gordon Gill story, it has been challenging to get others, outside of our geographical area, to carry the book.

That's why I am so delighted by this news!  Thanks to Hanwakan, Tessa and Cass for being advocates.

Prairie Sky Books
204-774-6152
prairieskygeneralstore.com
IG: @prairieskybooks

Normally, highway ferries cross rivers. In the 1980s, Gordon piloted the Peel River ferry *down* river, on the Mackenzie, from Fort Simpson, NWT to near Inuvik.

This unusual journey resulted from a re-fit job Northern Arc Shipbuilders secured from the Government of the NWT (GNWT). They were to replace the engine, ramp, shaft, propeller and wheel house and add a coffee room to the "McQueston", a small, single entry ferry. The work was to be done at Fort Simpson, where the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers join, and the vessel moved down river to Fort MacPherson, on the Peel River.

The journey of probably 770 miles (575 miles by air) was under the command of a Captain Marsh, the English-born GNWT Marine Superintendent, who had marine captain papers. However, Marsh had never been on the river. Gordon had been many, many times and knew it well; thus it was Gordon who ended up as the pilot and de facto captain.  Malcom McPhail was along as general deckhand and helper. 

Gordon remembers steering through the San Sault Rapids, and the narrow Ramparts. At the San Sault, Gordon would be particularly careful. This was after all the dangerous rapids which claimed Dredge 251, shortly after Gordon's near death experience aboard the Dredge's tugboat at age 16. Of piloting the small ferry through there, not exactly the thoroughbred of manoeuvrability, Gordon recalled: "The thing to remember at San Sault Rapid was to do the 'big swing', to stay well outside of the rocks and boiling [roiling] water. It was a mess in there. That's where Dredge 251 sank. Lots of canoes have tried to get closer to the shore there and capsized."

Their destination was Arctic Red River where another ferry connected the community to Inuvik. From there, Gordon went on to Fort MacPherson to ready the landing site where the McQueston would cross the Peel River. The crossing of the Peel is part of the Dempster Highway from Dawson City, Yukon, to Inuvik, and now Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean.

 A GNWT ferry operator would bring the vessel over a little later. Being a single entry ferry, and small, it had room for one truck, or trailer, or 2 cars, but they would have to either drive on and back off or the reverse.  Perhaps that is why the ferry only remained in service at Fort MacPherson for a short time before being moved to Yellowknife. It also had no rooms or accommodation, save for a 2 person coffee area. Thus the four people on board - McPhail, Gordon, Marsh and his wife - set up tents on deck and that is where they slept.

Marsh arranged that the local priest from Arctic Red and the Press from Inuvik would meet the ferry on arrival. As Gordon approached the landing spot, Captain Marsh - "he was from England", Gordon said - stepped out of the large tent he and his wife shared "all-decked out in braid and colour". No doubt resplendent, he looked out to see the old priest not so resplendent "dressed in an old coat, muddy covered hightop gumboots and ratty pants". 

No member of the press was in sight.

Growing up in the northern Alberta bush, Gordon likely didn't appreciate the potential pomp and ceremony of such a voyage.

Every time I talk to Gordon, something new to me presents itself.

In A Métis Man's Dream, Gordon talks about his old claim staking partner, the incredibly strong Metis man, Pierre Simpson. It turns out that Pierre's son, Rocky, trained as a lawyer in the south, and returned to Hay River. He has been a lawyer, businessman and Member of the Territorial Assembly.  

It was Rocky who purchased the Northern Arc Shipbuilders shop and property from Gordon when Northern Crane Services moved south to Edmonton.

Rocky's son, RJ, also trained as a lawyer, was elected to the NWT Assembly and recently was selected as Premier of the NWT by the Legislature.

The north continues to evolve!

If you haven't purchased an audiobook yet, A Métis Man's Dream is now available through Audible and Amazon!

It was so nice to open the April-June edition of WESTWRITE magazine from The Writers' Guild of Alberta and see A Métis Man's Dream featured in the Member's News section.  Many thanks!