Published in 1996 by Daphne Sleigh, Walter Moberly and the Northwest Passage by Rail chronicles the remarkable life and grueling exploratory expeditions of the 19th-century civil engineer who charted the rugged mountain passes of British Columbia. The book details Moberly's perilous quest to find a viable rail route through the formidable Selkirk and Cascade mountains for the Canadian Pacific Railway, battling harsh winters, treacherous terrain, and scarce supplies. Through archival journals and historical records, the text illustrates the immense physical and political hurdles involved in stitching a nascent Canadian nation together through steel. A keen insight drawn from the work is how transcontinental railway engineering was fundamentally an exercise in imperial imagination; surveyors like Moberly did not merely chart existing wilderness, but actively imposed a geopolitical grid onto an alpine landscape that fiercely resisted human dominion.

1800-1899, Amérique du Nord (Ouest) Découverte et exploration, Arctic Ocean Northwest Passage, Biographies, British Columbia, British Columbia Discovery and exploration, Canada, Western Discovery and exploration, Chemins de fer Colombie-Britannique Arpentage Histoire 19e siècle, Civil engineers, Civil engineers British Columbia Biography, Civil