John Seagrave was born in Toronto, Ontario, but from an early age felt like a cultural orphan in his own community. To escape the inevitable factory job he joined the "Gentleman Adventurers" of the Hudson's Bay Company as a modern-day fur trader. It was the 1970s and, like many other Bay Boys, he was transferred from pillar to post (ultimately 17 outposts) in northern Ontario and Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. Seagrave felt kinship to, and learned from, both Natives and Inuit, spending twenty years working hard as an HBC factor and experiencing many adventures along the way. After retiring from the HBC, Seagrave recorded what he witnessed as the fur trade collapsed, as electricity and television found their way into the remotest of communities, and as a revolution in transportation was occurring.