"Gumption & Grit" is the first in a brand new series being introduced by Caitlin Press which will showcase women of BC: their lives, their successes, their history.
In 2002 the Williams Lake Women's Contact Society posted a request for pioneer stories of the women of the Cariboo Chilcotin. What they received was an overwhelming number of tales of hardship, faith, adversity, endurance and accomplishment. These women were mothers, trappers, schoolteachers, outfitters, ranchers and homesteaders. "Gumption & Grit" contains more than 35 stories, including the tragic tale of Chiwid, a battered Tsilhqot'in woman who lived off the land as a recluse from society for more than 50 years; Gerrie Bracewell, who ranched in the "soft season" and guided big game hunters through some of the most dangerous and treacherous country of the Chilcotin; and Doreen Armes, who hopped on a steam locomotive in 1929 at the tender age of 18, leaving behind the comforts of the big city to become the first schoolteacher in Dog Creek's one-room schoolhouse. These stories are heartfelt and honest, and will resonate with the experiences of all women of this land.

"A diminutive cowboy with a full beard and a Texas drawl stands onstage at Expo 86 in Vancouver telling wild and woolly stories of life in the Chilcotin backcountry. The audience is mesmerized by his poetic ballad of an alcoholic dog that rode on the back of his saddle in Anahim Lake. The performer is Luther Corky Williams. Originally from Texas, Corky and his wife, Jeanine, moved from Los Angeles to Anahim Lake, BC, to become ranchers. Corky had grown up on a ranch along the Mexican border before heading to LA to work in the film industry. The learning curve was steep for the family as they tried to get used to sixty-below temperatures, keeping watering holes open for the cattle through four feet of river ice, contending with marauding grizzly bears, getting stuck in impossible bog holes, educating children and surviving the hoards of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. In the West Chilcotin, a country known to be hell on dogs and women, Jeanine says she thrived. I loved the ranching life, she says, but I felt the kids needed a better education. Eventually Jeanine and the children moved to Williams Lake while Corky stayed at the ranch. After a freak accident at the Anahim Lake Stampede, he was unable to continue life as a rancher, so he decided to return to his previous career onstage and in film. Getting chosen to perform at Expo was the big break he needed. From there he got an agent in Vancouver and landed parts in television shows like CBCs "The Beachcombers" and CTVs "Bordertown." After Corky and Jeanine split up in 1990, Corky moved back to Texas to work in theatre productions with his brother Jaston Williams, and he performed on some of the major stages across the United States. By 2007, Corky, longing for the wide-open spaces of BCs Cariboo, moved back to Williams Lake. After living in Texas for fifteen years, I just got a wild hair up my ass to get up and come back to Canada, Corky says. Corky became known as one of Western Canadas most beloved cowboy poets, performing his spoken word stories and poetry across the province."

She grew up playing on log booms and living in float houses, and at nine years old she learned to shoot a rifle and hunt game. Strong-willed and independent, Betty Frank always had a difficult time following the rules laid down by others. Rather than sit in a classroom and learn the times tables, she preferred to be out roaming the hills with her .22 rifle and bagging grouse. At an early age she dreamed of being a game guide and having her own hunting territory.
In spite of her distaste for sitting still, Betty soon realized that becoming a teacher would take her to the wilderness where the guiding opportunities lay, so she finished school and got her teaching certificate. But the schoolroom was neither adequate nor exciting enough to contain her imagination. Three years into her new career Betty met game guide Alfred Bowe, and from that day forward she followed her dream, embarking on a long and colourful career that spanned five decades.
Betty became a guide outfitter, trapper, shake splitter, dog musher and entrepreneur. Whether it was her penchant for nude sunbathing, popping out of a cake clad in a leopard-skin bikini at a guide-outfitters conference, taking lovers half her age, or living a life uncommon for a woman in the rough and ready Cariboo, Betty Frank made her mark, and throughout her fascinating career she broke all the gender stereotypes.