Tens of thousands of Canadian settlers faced the challenge of starting a farm in the near North in the 1910s, twenties, and thirties. In Places of Last Resort David Wood documents this last significant expansion of farm settlement in Canada and the often painful process of discovering that there was a limit to how far traditional farming could go.

Northerly locations were desperately sought out after more accessible land further south was taken up. Wood identifies the demographic characteristics of the surging population of land-seekers, showing how some aspects echoed those of earlier settlers. The northern settlers of the interwar years grappled with demanding conditions, which required new adaptations. They were supported in their efforts by politicians, bureaucrats, and religious leaders who had less than innocent reasons for endorsing what were questionable settlement experiments in unopened or abandoned areas. The book includes a series of gripping case studies to illustrate both the face of failure and what appear to have been the ingredients for success in marginal areas.