Spud's dream : the story of how a Canadian mountain-man helped create a world class city / Sidney K. Cole

Includes index.

1. Prospecting In His Veins -- 2. "Steak and Clams -- 3. The Tenacious Trio -- 4. The Dream Comes True -- 5. Gold for Copper from The Land of the Rising Sun -- 6. A New Bride and Another Mine for Spud -- 7. A Stick in a Hole -- 8. A Typical Mining Engineer -- 9. "Boomers" and the Unhappy Gourmet Chef -- 10. Two Winners- the Genius and the "Dragon Lady" -- 11. Vancouver Hums and Scams -- 12. They "Wash" and "Salt" and Sometimes Get Caught -- 13. More Scams, the "Boiler Room" and the Buyer -- 14. From the Top of the M.A.R.C to the Top of the Mark -- 15. Politics, Disaster and Recovery -- 16. Risen from the Past and Blasting to the Sky -- 17. The Hub of the Action - Vancouver Stock Exchange -- 18. The Famed Engineer -- 19. The Forgotten Runner - from Bethlehem to Western to the World -- 20. They Came from All Over -- 21. Two Good Guys - David Lam and Trapper Jack -- 22. The Speedy Couriers and a Trip Backwards -- 23. A Hop from the Fraser Valley to Vancouver Island -- 24. And Now.

Visitors come to Canada's province of British Columbia from all over the world. As they drive or fly into the city of Vancouver they gasp with pleasure at the sight of tall buildings shimmering in the sun before a stunning background of snow peaked mountains jutting into a blue sky. They see a thriving metropolis alive with energy. A magnificent art gallery, world class symphony, modern hospitals, more than fifteen sandy beaches, beautiful homes, famous parks and gardens greet the pleasantly surprised guests. The central financial core of new skyscrapers houses numerous enterprises, professional offices, corporate headquarters, advertising agencies, scores of investment houses, hotels, night clubs and computer service companies. The Vancouver Stock Exchange is known as one of the world's leading centers for the promotion of young public companies. But forty years ago the city was a laid-back, village-like "warehousing" center for the logging and fishing industries. Hundreds of fishing boats, trollers, gillnetters and seiners bringing in their catches of salmon, tuna, herring, and other denizens of the sea, tied up at the city's docks to unload their catches. Tugs pulled rafts, some a quarter mile long, loaded with logs, down the coastal waters or through the inland rivers to the saw mills and loading docks, their ultimate destiny many parts of the world. People worked in fish packing plants, grain terminals, warehouses or shops and stores. Loggers and fishermen flocked to the city in off season, the married ones heading to the neat little homes that abound the working class area of Vancouver. Single men usually gravitated to the sleazy areas, hanging out in the beer parlors and sleeping in run down, prostitute filled hotels.