However, this book gives us access to many first-hand accounts that are not available anywhere else unless you want to go hunting in archives. While some of the stories are taken from published works, these published works are ones that I desperately want to be introduced to as a Canadian Charlotte Mason homeschooler. Of course, this book also has multiple authors, another living book no-no. However, these are all excellent authors, including such figures as Stephen Leacock, W.O. Mitchell, Pierre Berton and Farley Mowat. This book is well-written from cover to cover, and I suspect that the editors are to be thanked for the readability of the first-hand accounts.I am using Great Canadian Adventures now for my Year 4 and Year 2 students. I think it is an ideal supplement to a "spine" (chronological) text, particularly for grades 4-6 and up. Do your own due diligence before handing it to your children, though. There is violence, as you might expect, as well as some strong language.
The main obstacle for use in a Charlotte Mason homeschool is that the stories are not presented strictly chronologically. Instead, they are divided by subject (pioneers, explorers, sailors, war, etc.). I have gone through it and listed each chapter chronologically for my own use. I'll share my list below for those of you who are blessed enough to find this gem.
Like many good books, this book is out of print. I found mine at a second-hand store. You may also be able to find it through bookfinder.com. The ISBN is 0888500513.
For more Canadian resources, check out my page CM in Canada.
Great Canadian Adventures
Indexed in chronological order
11th Century
The Quest for Vinland (p. 122)
Subject: Norse settlements, Leif Eriksson
Place: Present-day Newfoundland and Labrador
Years: around 1000
Author: Farley Mowat, condensed from Westviking
17th Century
Champlain, the Father of Canada (p. 140)
Subject: Samuel de Champlain
Places: Acadia, Quebec
Years: 1603-1635
Author: Morris Bishop
Mutiny in James Bay (p. 160)
Subject: Henry Hudson, Abacuk Pricket (a servant on board the Discovery)
Places: James Bay
Years: 1610-1611
Author: Abacuk Pricket (eyewitness), edited by Farley Mowat
Huronia’s Immortal Scoundrel (p. 17)
Subject: Etienne Brule, first coureur de bois
Place: New France
Years: 1608-1632
Author: Herbert Cranston
Martyrs of the Wilderness (p. 618)
Subject: French Jesuit Missionaries; Jean de Brebeuf
Place: New France
Years: 1626-1650
Author: Francis Parkman
The Epic Feud Over Acadia (p. 29)
Subject: Charles and Marie de La Tour, Charles d’Aulnay, Acadia
Place: both sides of the Bay of Fundy (present-day NS and NB)
Year: 1645
Author: Francis Parkman: adapted from The Old Regime in Canada
John Gyles’ Amazing Ordeal (p. 38)
Subject: John Gyles, Conflict between New France and New England, First Nations.
Place: Pemaquid (in present-day Maine), Meductic (in present-day NB)
Years: 1689-1698
Author: Stuart Trueman
A 9-year-old Puritan boy from New England seized by the Malecites and remains with them for 9 years. Based on Gyles’ own memoirs.
The Battle for Hudson Bay (p. 338)
Subject: Iberville; French and English struggle for the Hudson Bay fur trade
Place: Fort York, west side of Hudson Bay
Year: 1697
Author: Nellie M. Crouse
18th Century
The Lost Treasure of Le Chameau (p. 513)
Subject: Le Chameau, a ship from France, is shipwrecked with treasure
Place: Atlantic Ocean, near Fortress Louisbourg
Time: 1725 and 1961 (when it was discovered)
Author: not mentioned. Condensed from Canada Illustrated.
Escape from Michilimackinack (p. 58)
Subject: 23-year-old Alexander Henry, Pontiac’s Conspiracy
Place: British Fort Michilimackinac, between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan
Year: 1763
Author: Alexander Henry (first-hand account)
Search for the Coppermine (p. 462)
Subject: Samuel Hearne
Place: Fort Prince of Wales (present-day Churchill, Manitoba); Canada’s north
Year: 1769
Author: Stephen Leacock (excerpted from Adventurers of the Far North)
Ensign Prenties’ Dispatches
Subject: Shipwreck on Cape Breton Island; American Revolutionary War.
Place: Gulf of St. Lawrence
Year: 1780
Author: Walter Prentiss (first-hand account), edited by G. G. Campbell
British ensign is sent with dispatches from Quebec to New York and is shipwrecked on the way.
The Birchbark Brigades (p. 72)
Subject: French Canadian voyageurs, The North West Company
Places: from Montreal to Lake Winnipeg
Years: late 1700’s to 1821
Author: “the editors”
Despite the fact that this account is drawn together by “editors,” it quotes extensively from several first-hand accounts.
The Rover, Private Ship of War (p. 474)
Subject: Privateers (Pirates) from Nova Scotia
Place: The Spanish Main
Year: 1800
Author: Thomas H. Raddall
19th Century
Down the Roaring Fraser (p. 172)
Subject: Simon Fraser, North West Company, Fraser River
Place: The Fraser River
Year: 1808
Author: Bruce Hutchinson
Lieutenant Worsley’s Revenge (p. 346)
Subject: The War of 1812
Place: Fort Michilimackinac, between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron
Year: 1814
Author: C. H. J. Snider
A Voyage to a New Land (p. 220)
Subject: William Bell family, immigration from Scotland to Upper Canada
Place: A ship on the Atlantic
Year: 1817
Author: William Bell (first-hand account)
Winter Without End (p. 180)
Subject: Sir John Ross, Captain of the first steam-powered ship used in search for the North-west passage
Place: Canada’s North
Year: 1829
Author: Sir John Ross (extract from journal), edited by Farley Mowat
Roughing it in the Bush (p. 83)
Subject: Susanna Moodie
Place: Upper Canada, near Cobourg; Douro Township, northeast of Peterborough
Years: 1832-1837
Author: Susanna Moodie, taken from Roughing it in the Bush
Franklin’s Last Voyage (p. 207)
Subject: Sir John Franklin, search for the North-west Passage
Place: Canadian Arctic
Year: 1845
Author: Fred Bosworth
Overland to the Cariboo (p. 488)
Subject: The Cariboo Gold Rush
Place: British Columbia
Year: 1862
Author: Bruce Hutchison
The Damnedest Man That Ever Came Over the Cariboo Road (p. 522)
Subject: Judge Matthew Begbie; The Cariboo Gold Rush
Place: British Columbia
Years: 1858-1894
Author: Bruce Hutchison
The Saga of “Rudder” Churchill (p. 254)
Subject: George Churchill; stamina and resourcefulness of Nova Scotia mariners
Place: A ship in the Atlantic
Year: 1866-1867
Author: Archibald MacMechan
Tales of the Plains Crees (p. 98)
Subject: Chief Thunderchild, Cree life before they were forced onto reserves in the 1870's.
Place: North Saskatchewan River area
Year: 1867
Author: Edward Ahenakew (as told by Chief Thunderchild), edited by Ruth Matheson Buck
Confessions of a Secret Agent (p. 356)
Subject: Second Fenian conspiracy; Henri le Caron, a spy
Places: United States and Upper Canada
Years: 1868-1870
Author: Henri Le Caron (first-hand account)
Memoirs of a Master Detective (p. 566)
Subject: John Wilson Murray, detective for the province of Ontario
Place: Ontario
Years: 1873-1887
Author: John Wilson Murray
The Great Ship (p. 270)
Subject: The William D. Lawrence, biggest ship in the Bluenose fleet of Canadian vessels
Place: Maitland, NS
Year: 1874
Author: Joseph Schull
Wild and Woolly Days (p. 548)
Subject: Sam Steele, one of the first to join the North West Mounted Police
Place: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
Years: 1873-1885
Author: Samuel Benfield Steele (first-hand account)
The March West (p. 532)
Subject: The North West Mounted Police
Place: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
Year: 1874
Author: Ronald Atkin
The Wreck of the Codseeker (p. 261)
Subject: Shipwreck
Place: East of Cape Sable, NS.
Year: 1877
Author: William M. Murphy (adapted)
The Captain’s Boat (p. 283)
Subject: Nova Scotia skipper Capt. Henry MacArthur is shipwrecked with his family and crew
Place: People are from Maitland, NS. Story takes place on a ship in the Pacific Ocean
Year: 1881
Author: Archibald MacMechan
Van Horne Moves the Troops West (p. 368)
Subject: Metis rebellion; Canadian Pacific Railway
Place: North of Lake Superior; Saskatchewan
Year: 1885
Author: Pierre Berton
The Stampeders (p. 499)
Subject: Klondike gold rush
Place: Chilkoot Pass: Alaska/British Columbia border
Year: 1897-1898
Author: Pierre Berton
A Tibetan Tragedy (p.644)
Subject: Dr. Susie Carson Rijnhart, Canadian Christian missionary to Tibet
Place: Tibet, China
Year: 1898
Author: Susie Carson Rijnhart
20th Century
Isaac Barr’s Fiasco (p. 109)
Subject: Rev. Isaac Barr, British settlement in Western Canada
Place: Saskatchewan
Years: 1847-1937
Author: W. O. Mitchell
West with Thomas Wilby on the All-Red Route (p. 664)
Subject: Thomas Wilby, first man to take a car across Canada
Place: Halifax to Vancouver
Year: 1912
Author: Hugh Durnford and Glenn Baechler
Death on the Ice (p. 294)
Subject: The Great Newfoundland sealing disaster
Place: Newfoundland
Year: 1914
Author: Cassie Brown and Harold Horwood
Bombardment (p. 376)
Subject: WWI; in the trenches
Place: France and Belgium
Years: 1914-1918
Author: Charles Yale Harrison
Excerpt from Harrison’s novel Generals Die in Bed, based on his experience in the trenches of WWI.
The Courage of Early Morning (p. 392)
Subject: William Avery “Billy” Bishop, WWI Flying Ace
Place: France; England; Owen Sound, Ontario
Year: 1917
Author: William Arthur Bishop
The Mad Trapper of Rat River (p. 584)
Subject: Albert Johnson, outlaw
Place: Canadian Arctic
Year: 1931-1932
Author: Dick North
Frontline Surgeon (p. 678)
Subject: Norman Bethune
Place: Spain
Years: 1936-1939
Author: Sydney Gordon and Ted Allan (with extensive quotation from Bethune’s journal)
The St. Roch and the Northwest Passage
Subject: Henry Larsen navigates the Northwest Passage from west to east.
Place: The Canadian Arctic
Year: 1940-1942
Author: Henry A. Larsen
‘Bonjour, tout le mond a la maison d’Alphonse’ (p. 402)
Subject: WWII; Sgt. Maj. Lucien Dumais
Place: France, Britain
Years: 1943-1944
Author: Lucien Dumais
Haida, the Deadly Destroyer (p. 428)
Subject: WWII; Royal Canadian Navy
Place: Atlantic Ocean
Year: 1944
Author: William Sclater
The Two Jacks (p. 444)
Subject: WWII; Allied invasion; Jack Veness and Jack Fairweather from NB
Place: France
Year: 1944
Author: Will R. Bird
Through Nightmare to Freedom (p. 695)
Subject: Igor Gouzenko, exposed Canadian Soviet spy network
Place: Ottawa, ON
Year: 1945
Author: Igor Gouzenko
Two Who Refused to Die (p. 716)
Subject: Ralph Flores and Helen Klaben; Survival in the Canadian North after a plane crash
Place: British Columbia, Yukon
Year: 1963
Author: Thomas Whiteside
Doomsday Flight 812 (p. 600)
Subject: Paul Joseph Cini; Hijacking of a DC-8 airplane
Place: Calgary, then in the air
Year: 1971
Author: Paul King
