Well known Cariboo author Sage Birchwater knew Betty Frank for many years, and soon realized her stories and conversations were more than just small editorials, as her recollections could fill a whole book.
“I was working on another project about the Squaw Hall at the Williams Lake Stampede when I discovered that during the 1950s and ‘60s Betty would organize dances there,” says Birchwater.
“We started to work on the book in July 2010, and it was published this past October.”
The book is a fascinating read about Frank’s life, growing up playing on log booms and living float houses.
Thinking that becoming a teacher would take her to the wilderness, Frank soon found the schoolroom wasn’t exciting enough to contain her imagination.
Three years into her teaching career, Frank met game guide Alfred Bowe, and from that day, she followed her dream and worked as a guide-outfitter, trapper, shake splitter, dog musher and entrepreneur, a career that spanned five decades.
“Betty is very delightful as a retired game guide. Author Jack Boudreau once said, ‘she’s the only person who can tell five different stories at the same time’,” says Birchwater.
Taking a selection from Birchwater’s introduction to his book The Legendary Betty Frank, the Cariboo’s Alpine Queen, he says, “To grasp the essence of Betty’s life, imagine a bucket of paint getting flung against a wall – colourful, eventful and full of splash.”
Birchwater and Frank will be at the Nuthatch Books for a book signing on Nov. 30 from noon to 3 p.m.
