"Dunford's great strength is her entertaining, reliable, and forward-looking narrative ranging over a considerable region. The passage of time, the cast of characters, and the river itself hold the book together. North River is destined to become a classic of British Columbia local history"   Richard Somerset Mackie, author of Trading Beyond the Mountains

North River is the first comprehensive history of BC's North Thompson Valley. From a physical perspective, it covers the region from Kamloops to the Yellowhead Pass, west of Jasper, Alberta. From a historical perspective, it spans two centuries of life in BC's south-central interior.

Although few details are missed, this is no dry fact-filled chronology. Muriel Dunford's life-long love of the North Valley shows through as she describes the evolution of the region from before European contact to the post World War II completion of the Yellowhead Highway and the battle against BC's first uranium mine.

Through a half century of observation and a decade of serious research, Dunford has uncovered a wealth of untold stories - personal vignettes that reveal the hopes and fears, and the successes and failures of the people who traveled through the valley as well as those who stayed to make it their home. It is these stories that make history and this book come alive.

The book was written with the casual reader in mind. Over 110 photographs help illustrate the text and for the serious researcher, maps, endnotes, a bibliography and an extensive index make it easy to pick up where Mrs. Dunford leaves off.