The Shuswap Country by Erskine Burnett to be published soon!

History, Shuswap / By Jim Cooperman

The Shuswap Country by Erskine Burnett was produced in the 1940s and includes black and white photos from his many tours throughout our region and his stories about these adventures. It currently exists as an archival scrapbook in a number of museums and online at arcabc.ca

The book is edited by Jim Cooperman, author of Everything Shuswap and long-time columnist for the Shuswap Market News. As well, a prominent author will write the foreword. Local artist and book designer, Otto Pfannschmidt is doing the book design. It will help fill the demand for books about our region and its history, of which there are only a few.

Erskine Burnett was a real pioneer who left Scotland in 1887, travelled throughout Canada and eventually settled in Coldstream in about 1908, where he farmed. He was well known to locals, as he peddled his fruit between Revelstoke and Oliver out of his one-ton truck. In a letter to a newspaper columnist, one of his friends described him as “brainy and well-read” and a lover of the great outdoors. He noted, “I would say that barring Stephen Leacock, he might have been the greatest humorist in Canada if he had put his mind to his writing.”

The book will foster greater appreciation of local history and Shuswap geography, as well as promote tourism and economic development.

Publication is being made possible thanks to the generous financial support from CSRD, RDNO, SASCU, Askews Foods, Bill Laird Holdings, and Greg Darroch Investments. If your organization or company is interested in being a sponsor, please contact Jim Cooperman at jkcooperman@yahoo.ca.

Here is a link to the February 28th CBC interview about the book: Interview link

Learn more about the book here, AN 80-YEAR-OLD SCRAPBOOK PROVIDES AN INSIGHTFUL LOOK AT SHUSWAP HISTORY

Recent media coverage in the Salmon Arm Observer by Barb Brouwer – Historic photos, ‘intriguing text’ prompts creation of new book about the Shuswap

One of the many great photos in the book:

Expedition to the Sugar Mountain fire lookout, photo courtesy of the Enderby and District Museum and Archives

About The Author

Jim Cooperman

Author of the local best seller, Everything Shuswap, Jim Cooperman moved to the Shuswap in 1969 as a war resister and a back-to-the-lander, after receiving his BA from the University of California at Berkeley. Over the succeeding years, Jim taught school, worked in construction and log building, operated a sawmill, and edited a provincial environmental journal, the BC Environmental Report. His local environmental work led to the protection of over 25,000 hectares of new parks in the Shuswap, which is documented in the book, Big Trees Saved, by Deanna Kawatski. He has researched and written about local history and helped initiate and edit the local history journal, Shuswap Chronicles I and II. In 1993, he wrote the Chapter on Canada in Clearcut – The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. And in 1998, he wrote Keeping the Special in Special Management Zones, A Citizens’ Guide, published by BC Spaces for Nature. Jim lives with his wife, Kathleen, in a log home they built on 40 acres above Shuswap Lake, where they raised five children. His column, “Shuswap Passion,” appears every two weeks in either the Shuswap Market News or the Salmon Arm Observer. Additionally, his YouTube channel has over 100 videos, including many that showcase live music, skiing and Shuswap geography.

Latest Videos

Fun, insightful, inspiring and intriguing videos of music, backcountry ski-touring, environmental events, hiking, and biking.

Roots & Blues Retro – a retrospective tour of festivals since 2011

.A brief tour of the 2018 Adams River sockeye salmon run. The soundtrack is a song by Anie Hepher.

Most of the images from the book, Everything Shuswap with an original soundtrack by Sylvain Valle

The Shuswap Country

by Erskine Burnett

Treasures come in assorted shapes and sizes. They might be a grandmother’s beaded purse, or an old apple basket like one resting atop my bookshelf that transports me to the family farm, with voices shouting from treetops as we pluck Macs and Golden Delicious. A personal scrapbook can also be an unexpected treasure, and The Shuswap Country by Erskine Burnett is just that.

Everything Shuswap

by Jim Cooperman

“Everything Shuswap explores the region’s rich eco-types and its interwoven historical record. It’s a textbook for understanding one of the most beautiful and least understood landscapes and it should be mandatory reading for anyone who lives in or visits the Shuswap.” – Mark Hume, author of Adam’s River and other books

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