When I passed into “The Age of Maturity” (80) I  gradually began giving up on any new ideas to change the world as I knew it. Since 1972 my world had revolved around developing a sense of belonging and love for this beautiful stretch of geography known as the Omineca Lakes District of North Central BC. And Fraser Lake in particular.

Over the years I discovered that for me most everything good came out of the hopes and dreams of previous ideas and aspirations, many of which had crashed and burned. Last night at our Fraser Lake & District Historical Society meeting a new member asked whether it was me who had  “started” the Society. I said “yes” but only because I wanted to write a local history book.

I have always loved writing. When I quit my job to have a baby in 1974, I began submitting a weekly humour column called “Sense and Nonsense” to The Nechako Chronicle in Vanderhoof.  The editor Glenn Clark (not THE Glenn Clark) was very accomodating. I was paid 3 cents a column inch which added up to about 20 dollars a month.

In about 1980 I became hooked on history. There were so many interesting stories told first hand by area pioneers – many that required very little editing. I taped their stories on my little recorder and managed to transcribe them into a column titled “The Good Old Days.”

By this time, I think I was making at least a nickle per column inch… The Nechako Chronicle in Vanderhoof was no more and had been replaced by The Omineca Express, who now accepted my submissions. The Cariboo Observer in Quesnel had accepted my Sense and Nonsense columns,  as had Glenn Clark who now published his own weekly paper in Prince George. He called it “The Spruce Needle.” I still love that title!

Does anybody know whatever happened to Glenn Clark and his neat little newspaper?

It was Angus Davis who later referred to me as “Ye olde archivist of Fraser Lake” who mailed a newspaper clipping of an historic event on Fraser Lake to me, that stirred my yearning to combine historic recollections with archival information into a local history book.

Vanderhoof already had their history book “The Town That Wouldn’t Wait” edited by well known author, Lyn Hancock. Perhaps I could do the same.

I already had a title in mind: “Through The Endako Valley,” which headlined a chapter in a book by F.A. Talbot titled  “The New Garden Of Canada: by Packhorse and Canoe Through Underdeveloped New British Columbia.” The book was published in 1911. In this particular chapter the author described an encounter with local telegraph lineman Harry LeDuke, whose job it was to check the Dominion Telegraph Company wires that snaked through northwest BC on forever toppling poles. Trees often fell on the lines. Mr Leduke had told the story about how he’d recently been chased by a bear. Luckily he was riding a fast horse.

I surmised that the Hudson Bay Company archival files would be integral to our story. In the 1980s they were stored in Winnipeg Manitoba.  I applied for an Explorations Grant to cover  the expenses of my sister-in-law and  fellow adventurer, Beth Woolsey,  and myself to travel and ensconce ourselves at the Archives in that faraway city. Despite the invaluable assistance of Penny at Studio 2880 in Prince George and ex-newspaper publisher Audrey Smedley L’hereaux of Vanderhoof, my application for funding was turned down.

By that time I had amassed quite a lot of historic material from books borrowed from the Fraser Lake Library ( thank you librarian Pat Fallat) The journals of fur traders such as Simon Fraser, Daniel Williams Harmon and many others had been published in book form. At the back of every book I read and took notes on,  there would be a bibliography of the reading material and archival references accessed by the author. I would once again pester Pat the librarian, to order whatever books were not already available in our library.

The book had to be written. I chatted with a dear lady, Grace Foote, whose local pioneer roots dated back to the early years of the 20th century. Grace had always wanted to complile a history book of the area. We connected with a number of other local pioneers to form The Fraser Lake & District Historical Club and applied for a New Horizons Grant. The grant was accessible only to a group with membership consisting of those over 65 years of age. I was a too young to be the editor.

We worked together with input from many sources to come up with the book “Deeper Roots and Greener Valleys” which all of us were very proud of. Lots of accolades from people in the community. My personal favourite was from the very affable Father Kelly of the local Catholic Church. He proclaimed that the book was “hazardous to the health.”

“I started reading it and found I could not eat and I could not sleep,” he said. “It was so interesting. I just couldn’t put it down!