The Great Divide lives up to its name when it comes to the distinct origins of cowboy culture as it evolved on both sides of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia and Alberta. Ken Mather digs deep to track the storied trails of cowboys, cattle drives and the ranching frontiers of both provinces. The men and women ranchers west of the continental divide were influenced by techniques and equipment that came north from California and its strong Spanish heritage. In Alberta the traits of that community were influenced more by Texas and Colorado, although some of the colourful "buckaroo" practices and equipment found their way from across the Great Divide. Cattle culture in BC originated some 20 years before Alberta's in the aftermath of the early gold rushes; it took the arrival of the North West Mounted Police and the taming of the prairie frontier to allow a fledgling ranching industry to take hold east of the mountains. The influences were broad: cattle cultures from Iberia and the British highlands also shaped the basis of North American ranching. In the third book of his cowboy trilogy, which includes bestsellers Buckaroos and Mudpups and Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops, Mather examines the genesis of ranching in the Canadian west with an innate talent for discovering colourful characters and little-known facts that help us understand the nuances of cowboy folklore both east and west of the Rockies. Book jacket.