Kate Rice, Prospector

James G. Snell is a history professor at the University of Guelph,
author of In the Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900-1939, and
co-author of The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution.

Kate Rice was born, raised, and educated in an upper-middle-class environment in late nineteenth century southern Ontario. As a young adult she turned first to a traditional occupation for unmanned females, that of schoolteacher. It was not long, however, before this no longer satisfied her. Turning her back on her school position in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Miss Rice felt the lure of the new Canadian frontier — the resources frontier in the north. In 1909 she moved north to The Pas, Manitoba, and spent the remainder of her active life as a prospector in pursuit of mineral riches.

The fact that a female spent most of her adult life in the bush pursuing what was considered to be “a man’s work” is what provides interest in what was otherwise a rather ordinary life. What made Kate Rice adopt such an unconventional life? The author provides no explanation, and this is the book’s major disappointment. Without this, the biography contains little information of interest.

The writing is effective, but the book’s organization is not always clear. More disconcerting is the author’s apparent ability to uncover and convey to the reader detailed and sometimes lengthy conversations of Miss Rice from sixty, eighty, almost one hundred years ago. Are these truly authentic, or did the author take some liberties in portraying Miss Rice? In the preface, we learn that the author used her “own imagination” where necessary. It might have been useful to the reader to indicate these imaginative points; without these, the authenticity of the biography is undermined.