The Great Cross Canada Hike
1921
Charles Burkman, a Port Arthur, Ontario, man who was out of work in Halifax, started the Great Cross-Canada Hike inadvertently in the winter of 1921 when he told his friend Sid Carr that he planned to walk west in search of a job. Carr, a Halifax native, liked the idea and joined Burkman.
Their idea fascinated the Chronicle-Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and when they walked out of the city on January 17, the newspaper bid them farewell with a public announcement that they intended to walk across the country.
John Behan of neighbouring Dartmouth and his son, Clifford, were intrigued by the story and by the attention that Burkman and Carr were getting. So they turned the walk into a race nine days later, on January 26, when they set out, vowing to overtake the Burkman and Carr before the two leaders reached Montreal.
Then, what was to have been no more than a casual walk became a spirited three-way contest on February 1 when a man-and-wife team, Frank and Jenny Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia, joined the chase. And the race by the trekkers, who telegraphed back regular reports of their progress, captivated the Herald and its readers for months to come.
Carr, upset that the hike had become a competition, was the lone drop out. He stopped at Petitcodiac, New Brunswick, and caught a train back to Halifax. Burkman, originally from Port Arthur, Ontario, pressed on alone in the lead with the rest following behind.
All hikers followed the railway line, and all at times feared for their safety. Behan was harassed by wildcats in the wilderness of Quebec. And the Dills had a brush with death when a coasting locomotive overtook them from behind. They leaped for their lives when they felt the rails vibrating beneath their feet and realized what was about to happen.
On March 14 the Behans caught Burkman at Azilda, near Sudbury Ontario, and the three walked together for the next three weeks, before the Behans pulled ahead.
But it was the Dills who were walking fastest despite their late start. By early May the Behans had reached Regina, Saskatchewan, and only days later the Dills caught Burkman at Broadview, Saskatchewan. From there on, it was a war of nerves until the conclusion, the Dills accusing the Behans of cheating.
The Behans reached Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 12, 138 days and 3,645 miles after
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