Thesis studies history of transportation corridor

Lieutenant Governor's Silver Medal

Ben Bradley’s medal-winning master’s thesis began with a 1998 family drive along highway 16 east of Prince George, which has been called "B.C.’s loneliest highway." He wondered what lay down gravel roads marked with signs like "Dome Creek: No Services," roads that his father was reluctant to negotiate.

Back home in Vancouver, Bradley ransacked libraries trying to satisfy his curiosity.

"I’ve always been interested in B.C. history and geography, and here was a big black hole in my knowledge—a huge part of the province, and I could find nothing about it or the people who lived there."

Eventually, the UVic history student found what he was looking for in local histories, tourist guides and old photographs, parks and highway maintenance records, and the landscape itself. Then he wrote this year’s top master’s thesis.

The thesis examines the Robson Valley–Yellowhead Pass transportation corridor, describing how people’s experiences of the place—as travellers and as residents—changed as the dominant mode of transportation shifted from train to automobile during the late 20th century.

Among his findings: the new highway was built several miles away from the railway and established new communities. Motorists bypassed the mill-towns along the tracks, many of which became ghost towns as logs were hauled by truck to pulp mills in Prince George.

During his studies Bradley was assisted by a history department graduate fellowship and the Margaret DeSantis Memorial Scholarship.

Now pursuing a PhD in history at Queen’s University, Bradley is planning a dissertation on automobility and everyday life in B.C. "Everyday life is a familiar but unknown realm," he says. "It’s where everything and nothing of significance happens."