This title is part of our Wild Bloom Collection. 50% of the sale price goes directly to our partners at Inclusion NWT.
Growing up as the son of a prominent physician in Edwardian England, Tom Payne had a penchant for gambling, fast horses and wild women. His restlessness led him to self-imposed exile in Western Canada in 1912.
After learning the farming trade in Saskatchewan, competing for scarce job opportunities in Alberta and freighting winter supplies to the Flin Flon mines, Tom became a master of machines, eventually driving a Linn tractor during the ill-fated MacAlpine Expedition as it explored the Northwest Territories. During this time, Tom’s penchant for survival became the stuff of legend.
After a flurry of near-death experiences only serves to strengthen his resolve, Tom embarked on a series bold prospecting ventures. During his tenure at Great Bear Lake, we are privy to powerful story which recounts the toughness and self-reliance of adventurous pioneers and resolute natives as they struggle with the realities of life and death on the edge of civilization.
Eventually Tom’s prospecting activities coalesce in Yellowknife, where he discovers a rich gold mine among the quartz veins. Despite powerful opposition in the form of illness, intrigue and danger, Tom manages to broker one of the biggest mining deals in Canadian history, find true love in the form of future wife Olga Banks and discover a new lease on life in the burgeoning oil business.
Quin Kola is the real-life account of a one of Canada’s greatest prospectors. Despised by corporations, but grudgingly admired by those who sought an honest living in Canada’s vast and rugged territories, Tom Payne was a larger-than-life character whoes incredible journey comes to vivid life within these pages.
