Bannock and Beans A Cowboy's Account of the Bedaux Expedition

In 1934, in the middle of the Great Depression, millionaire Charles Bedaux spent $250,000 in an attempt to cross northern British Columbia in five motorized vehicles. The Bedaux Expedition ranks as one of the most audacious and unusual events in the province's history. Bannock & Beans tells the story of this extravagant failure from the perspective of one of the cowboys who worked on Bedaux's team. Bob White's reminiscences, recounted in the tradition of the cowboy storyteller, describe the hardships of cutting trails and hauling supplies on horseback, the beauty of the wilderness landscape and many of the unique aspects of the expedition. Bannock and Beans also reveals the complex character of the expedition's leader, Charles Bedaux, a French entrepreneur who made his fortune in the United States. The book includes White's experiences in Bedaux's attempts to develop a ranch in northern BC after the expedition.

Bob White (1902–86) was a career cowboy, born and raised in the remote Cypress Hills region of southwestern Saskatchewan. As a young man, White yearned for adventure, so headed west with a friend and ended up trapping and working on pack trains in northern BC, where he was hired to work for Charles Bedaux. In 1983, long after he had returned to Saskatchewan, White wrote his account of the Bedaux Expedition.