Biography & Autobiography Adventurers & Explorers
Ootsa Lake Odyssey
George and Else Seel: A Pioneer Life on the Headwaters of the Nechako Watershed
- Publisher
- Caitlin Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2016
- Category
- Adventurers & Explorers
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781987915211
- Publish Date
- Nov 2016
- List Price
- $24.95
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Description
From the 1920s to 1952, George and Else Seel lived about sixty kilometres south of Burns Lake near the small farming settlement of Wistaria on the western shore of Ootsa Lake. Like many early twentieth century settlers who migrated to BC's Central Interior, the Seels came in search of opportunity and prosperity, but the harsh environment posed challenges they could not have imagined. The community was remote and the winters were long, but eventually, along with their fellow settlers, they learned how to live and thrive in this new world. They developed a close connection to the land; helped each other in times of need; and established collaborative relationships with the First Nations people who lived around them.
The couple and their family lived at Ootsa Lake through the prosperity of the late 1920s; subsisted during the Depression of the 1930s; and experienced a rejuvenation during World War II and its aftermath. George died in 1950, but Else remained until 1952, when their property was flooded by the Nechako Reservoir as part of the Alcan project and she was uprooted, like many of the Ootsa Lake settlers and Cheslatta First Nations people.
George had spent his life as a prospector and trapper and Else as a published writer. Together they documented a rich story of pioneer life in a small Northern BC community before the demand for hydro power changed their life and the valley forever.
About the author
Jay Sherwood is the author of two other books about Frank Swannell: Surveying Northern British Columbia (a 2005 BC Book Prize finalist) and Surveying Central British Columbia (second-prize winner in the 2007 BC Historical Federation Writing Competition). He now lives in Vancouver, where he works as a teacher-librarian.
Awards
- Winner, Jeanne Clarke History Award
- Runner-up, BC Genealogical Society Family History Book Award
Editorial Reviews
“Ootsa Lake Odyssey is a welcome story for readers interested in the history of settlement and working lives in the Nechako watershed, in German immigration to B.C., and in the destruction caused by post-war hydroelectric construction in W.A.C. Bennett era.”
— Sage Birchwater, The Ormsby Review
Other titles by
Kechika Chronicler
Willard Freer's Northern BC and Yukon Diaries, 1942-1975
Surveying the 120th Meridian and the Great Divide
The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1918-1924
Surveying the Great Divide
The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1913-1917
The Landscape of Ernest Lamarque
Artist, Surveyor and Renaissance Man, 1879-1970
Chautauqua Serenade
Violinist Ruth Bowers on Tour, 1910-1912
Surveying Southern British Columbia
A Photojournal of Frank Swannell, 1901-07
In the Shadow of the Great War
The Milligan and Hart Explorations of Northeastern British Columbia, 1913-14
Furrows in the Sky
The Adventures of Gerry Andrews
Return to Northern British Columbia
A Photojournal of Frank Swannell, 1929-39
Bannock and Beans
A Cowboy's Account of the Bedaux Expedition