{"product_id":"the-pioneer-bankers","title":"The Pioneer Bankers","description":"\u003cp\u003eBefore dawn on April 5, 1910, three men crept from a hotel in Ashcroft, British Columbia, climbed into a horse-drawn wagon, and headed north. Beneath their seat lay a gunny sack holding $50,000 in cash. They were bankers, racing to open Fort George’s first financial institution in an isolated settlement poised to become the Canadian west’s next boom town.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pioneer Bankers\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of chief inspector James Anderson, bank manager Lorne MacHaffie, and young Scottish clerk Jock Munro, who spent two weeks driving 280 miles of the Cariboo Road. Travelling through roadhouses, river crossings, mud, and late-spring snow to plant the Bank of British North America’s flag before their rivals arrived before them. They beat the Traders Bank by just twenty-three hours.\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on Anderson’s journals, more than 100 photographs, and Munro’s letters home to Scotland, author Vivien Lougheed follows the journey north and the gripping aftermath. Through land-boom chaos, rival townsites, the railway, war, and the BBNA’s absorption into the Bank of Montreal, \u003cem\u003eThe Pioneer Bankers\u003c\/em\u003e reveals a frontier city finding its feet and the quiet Scotsman who stayed, endured, and made it his home.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hancock House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":66157236093277,"sku":null,"price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/3893\/2573\/files\/9780888398116.jpg?v=1791541132","url":"https:\/\/shop.gazellebookservices.co.uk\/products\/the-pioneer-bankers","provider":"Gazelle Book Services","version":"1.0","type":"link"}