The Boy in the Picture: The Craigellachie Kid and the Driving of the Last Spike

by Ray Argyle

Edward Mallandaine was there! To prove it he thrust himself into the historic photograph of the "Last Spike" being driven to mark the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Surrounded by the railway dignitaries of the time, his young face peers out amid their frosty beards.

Edward had just turned eighteen when he left his home in Victoria, British Columbia, to join the Canadian militia to fight Louis Riel in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Hired to ride dispatches over the unfinished stretch of railway in British Columbia, he meets highway men, high officials, men of the North-West Mounted Police, and the denizens of saloons hidden away in mountain passes. He survives the lawlessness of remote towns and railway camps, rubs shoulders with Chinese labourers struggling to blast a right-of-way through the towering peaks of Eagle Pass, and makes a freezing midnight ride by railway flatcar to reach the outpost of Craigellachie just in time.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

146 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2010

About the author

Ray Argyle is a Canadian journalist and author who has written several books of biography and political history. His new book, An At of Injustice, is a Canadian historical novel based on a true story. It will be published in April, 2017 by Mosaic Press. Argyle worked for United Press International before establishing Argyle Communications Inc. where he counseled political leaders and business executives. He is a former Trustee of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. In 2012 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for significant contributions to Canadian life. When not travelling, he lives in Kingston, Ont., with his partner Deborah Windsor.

Reviews

[Mark]

Growing up in Creston where Edward Mallandaine (the boy in the picture) was an important founding figure, I'd always known of his connection to the Last Spike but it was great getting to read the actual story behind his involvement.

[Canadian Children's Book Centre]

Few, if any, photographs in Canadian history are as famous as the one showing the hammering of the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. It provides a rich opportunity for storytelling because of the number of people in that iconic photo, including a young boy who somehow managed to find his way into an indelible piece of Canadian history.

Just how did a teenager insert himself between Donald A. Smith, hammering the spike, and Sandford Fleming? Ray Argyle tells the story of Edward Mallandaine, the 18-year-old boy-cum-adventurer, who travelled from BC to the Northwest Territories (now Alberta) hoping to join the militia and be a part of the military force taking down Louis Riel during the Northwest Rebellion in 1885.

As a young boy himself, Argyle got to know the elderly Mallandaine and heard a number of his stories. In this book, he recounts them in fictionalized form with imagined dialogue as we relive Mallandaine’s escapades, whether it is being accosted by thieves while he works to deliver mail by horse, or in his encounters with Dukesang Wong, the Chinese navvy who left behind an extensive written account of his own. This meeting is one of the more interesting set pieces of the book.

More could have been written about the photograph itself, a recounting that takes up just one small chapter of the book. What does this photograph still mean today? How did someone so young and unrelated to the CPR make it in, anyway?

The book’s inset features on selected historical topics related to the CPR are useful. A perusal of the book by teachers would certainly allow them to enhance any lessons related to a study of the photograph itself. Beyond that, the book would most appeal to keen history students in Grade 7, 8 and beyond.

Reviewed by J.D.M. Stewart in Canadian Children's Book News (Spring 2011, Vol. 34, No. 2)

[Dawn]

The story of Edward Mallandaine. He left his home in Victoria and travelled across the mountains in an attempt to join the militia during the Metis Rebellion. The fighting was over before he arrived so he remained in the mountains carrying the mail while the railway was built. This book touches on all the current events of the day. You see the mistreatment of the Chinese laborers, the politics, the Metis rebellion, the lawlessness of the railway camps as well as how the Mounties did their best to maintain order, interspersed with photos and maps of the day. Edward managed to place himself so that he is in the famous photo of the last spike being driven in to the railway. He wrote “Thus, was the Dominion of Canada bound and nailed together by bands of steel.”

[Marmot]

My 7-year old enjoyed this book (he's into cpr history), but I found it a bit dull. Lots of editing on the fly was required as I read it aloud to protect his innocence (ie skipping over some of the more graphic parts about mistreatment of the Chinese workers, alcohol use etc). Interesting idea, but not as thrillingly written as it could have been.

[Lory Kaufman]

Usually I don't read much Non Fiction, except when I'm doing research, but Ray Argyle's narrative has a wonderful story-like voice to it. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend this book to anyone interested in railroads or knows a kid who is.

[Genni Gunn]

Lovely story of an enigmatic historical character.