In this lighthearted and charming collection of stories, popular historian Grant MacEwan captures the homespun humour, the outrageous antics, and the colourful characters that brought laughter and joy into the often difficult lives of the early pioneers. Among these pages you will meet the likes Pegleg Paul, king of woodenleg mirth and permanent fixture at the Fleet Livery's Hot Stove Liars' League; and Tom Sukanen, inventor and mechanical genius, obsessed with the singlehanded construction of a 43-foot, 15-tonne seaworthy ship on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River.
John Walter Grant MacEwan, best known as Grant MacEwan (August 12, 1902 – June 15, 2000) was a farmer, Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dean of Agriculture at the University of Manitoba, the 28th Mayor of Calgary and both a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Canada.
MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta and the MacEwan Student Centre at the University of Calgary as well as the neighbourhoods of MacEwan Glen in Calgary and MacEwan in Edmonton are named after him.