Much lamented, the loss to forest fire of fourteen magnificent examples of early railway engineering in Canada hit the newspaper headlines, the radio and television newscasts, and created a topic for talk among citizens from coast to coast to coast in September. Day by day the tally grew, five the first day, seven a day later, an eighth trestle soon afterwards, and the entire Kettle Valley in British Columbia was ravaged by forest fires that could not be contained.

The trestles, some dating back almost hundred years, had been refurbished as part of the Trans-Canada Trail, and drew an estimated 50,000 tourists annually who enjoyed spectacular views of the valley as they cycled across them.

In what is an eerie coincidence, the first Member of Parliament who appears in the first segment of "In Memory's Eye", a publication which begins on the Internet in this issue of the Canadian Vindicator, was an ardent advocate for the retention of the Kettle Valley Railway.

As related there:

"Time and again he treated the House to a verbal treatise on the merits of the Kettle Valley Railway.

Time and again he recited the route taken by the Kettle Valley Railway.

Time and again he reeled off the names of towns, villages and hamlets served by the Kettle Valley Railway."

When he was writing those words, little did the author think that the Kettle Valley Railway and its trestle bridges would reappear dramatically in so eerily timed coincidence.

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