Part of the journey to camp in British Columbia might be made through the swirling waters of the Fraser. Skilled and daring boatmen, like Joe "The Canyon Cat" McNeil who bossed crews for the GTP in 1913, manned the scows, but still many were lost to the river. A journalist described a run on the Fraser: "one contractor] sent a boat-load of fifty-three through the canyon, a risk that savored strongly of attempted manslaughter...the Italians prayed and the Swedes cursed as the scow began to stand on end in the whirlpooIs that line the perilous course."
