Canyon War covers the tumultuous events of 1858 in British Columbia-events which led to a little-known war that could have escalated, had it not been for the persuasive diplomacy of Chief Spintlum of the Nlaka'pamux First Nation. 2008 marked the 150th anniversary of the Fraser River Gold Rush, which saw some 30 to 40 thousand gold seekers flood into the Fraser Valley, culminating in the Fraser River War in August of that year. Many lives were lost, both Native and non-Native, until peace was finally concluded in Lytton by Chief Spintlum and Henry Snyder. Through the descendants from this time, Kevin Loring and Dr. Dan Marshall, Canyon War provides a lasting legacy of this event and is shot on the war's little-known battlefields- from the fight of Boston Bar to the peace at Kumsheen.

Research based on Dr. Daniel Marshall's Doctoral Dissertation, Claiming the land : Indians, goldseekers, and the rush to British Columbia, UBC, 2000.