Author Biography

Geoff Mynett was born in England where he qualified as a Barrister. After emigrating to British Columbia in 1973, he became a Canadian citizen, requalified as a lawyer and practiced law until his retirement. His first book, Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician (Ronsdale Press, 2019), is a bestselling biography of the pioneer doctor in Hazelton in Northern BC, 19001936. Geoff and his wife Alice live in Vancouver and have two sons. He is an artist and a passionate believer in the importance of knowing our histories.

Table of Contents

ContentsPreface1. Simon McGillivray and What He Did on June 21, 18332. George Chismore and the Western Union Russian-American Telegraph3. Thomas Hankin and the Founding of Hazelton4. Edgar Dewdney, Charles Horetzky and Passers-By5. Jim May and the Miners of the Omineca Gold Rush6. Jack Gillis and his Helpful Grave7. Thomas Riley, Barney Devine and Their Dead Ends8. Bishop William Ridley, his wife Jane and the Hazelton Queek9. Richard Loring and the Mystery of the Swedish Balloon10. Father Morice and His Trembling Knees11. James Kirby and Mexican Tom, the Hazelton Bully12. Horace and Alice Wrinch and Their Arrival in Kispiox13. Sperry Cline and the Suspended Corpse14. Mr. Sargent, Mr. Loring and Their Bitter Feud15. George MacKenzie, The Missing Medicine Chest and Runaway Dogs16. Sperry Cline and the Winter Mail17. Constance Cox and the Nurses of Hazelton Hospital18. James Maitland-Dougall and the Policing of Hazelton19. The People of Hazelton and their Shocking Morals20. Grace Morley and the Soiled Doves of Two Mile21. Emily Carr and the Totem Poles of the Skeena22. Rene D'Egville and the Men from Hazelton Who Went to War23. May Hogan, the Woman from Hazelton Who Went to War24. The Hudson's Bay Company and the 250th Birthday Celebrations25. Captain Streett and the First Aeroplane to Reach Hazelton26. Premier Tolmie and his Famous Caravan Visit HazeltonAppendix 1 Edgar Dewdney's Letter About the Founding of HazeltonAppendix 2 Those Who ServedAppendix 3 World War 1 CasualtiesNotes and SourcesAcknowledgementIndexAbout the Author

Review

For Pinkerton's and the Hunt for Simon Gunanoot: "Simon Peter Gunanoot is the iconic Gitxsan outlaw who stands astride a 'Wild West' in British Columbia that was wilder than any American pulp writer imagined. It's a story of colliding cultures, colonial authority, Indigenous resistance and of conflicting concepts of rights, justice and governance that still reverberate through current events. Sifting through secret police reports dispatched during a thirteen-year manhunt, Geoff Mynett sheds a shrewd and discerning light on the social history they inadvertently reveal. As compelling as the best police procedural, his meticulously researched book is an extraordinary and important contribution to BC history." --Stephen Hume, long-time Vancouver Sun columnist and award-winning author
For Murders on the Skeena: "Mynett's latest book features a series of fascinating and often sensational events in small town Hazelton, BC, during the time of the early Hudson Bay Company settlement into the traditional territory of the Gitxsan First Nations. Through impeccable archival research, Mynett entertains the reader with stories of historic events and precedent-setting legal, political and cultural conflict taking place in one small region of Northern British Columbia." --Jane Stevenson, author of A Trail of Two Telegraphs and The Railroader's Wife

Long Description

In River of Mists , best-selling author and award-winning historian Geoff Mynett returns to the Skeena River community of Hazelton to shed new light on the wide spectrum of characters who left their mark on the area. Delving as far back in time as the early 1820s, Mynett covers over a century of change in the small community which, due to its location at the forks of the Skeena and Bulkley rivers and proximity to mountain ranges, seems destined to be a hub of activity--always industrious, often prosperous, and occasionally scandalous--while maintaining the charming nature of small town. The characters in River of Mists may not be those traditionally associated with the written history of the region now known as Hazelton, BC. Here are the stories of those whose lives left some mark on the community--visitors like Hudson's Bay Company trader Simon McGillivray, Western Union Telegraph medical officer George Chismore, and famed painter Emily Carr; and the lesser known pioneers, prospectors, and longtime residents like HBC agent turned local business owner Thomas Hankin, and Bishop William Ridley and Jane Ridley, founders of the Hazelton Queek , named after the whistling mountain marmot. Combining folksy, small-town charm and meticulous research, Mynett's River of Mists: People of the Upper Skeena, 1833-1930 is a whimsical and informative chronicle of a century in the heart of Northern BC.

Review Quote

For Pinkerton's and the Hunt for Simon Gunanoot : "Simon Peter Gunanoot is the iconic Gitxsan outlaw who stands astride a 'Wild West' in British Columbia that was wilder than any American pulp writer imagined. It's a story of colliding cultures, colonial authority, Indigenous resistance and of conflicting concepts of rights, justice and governance that still reverberate through current events. Sifting through secret police reports dispatched during a thirteen-year manhunt, Geoff Mynett sheds a shrewd and discerning light on the social history they inadvertently reveal. As compelling as the best police procedural, his meticulously researched book is an extraordinary and important contribution to BC history." --Stephen Hume, long-time Vancouver Sun columnist and award-winning author

Description for Reader

Geoff Mynett was born in England where he qualified as a Barrister. After emigrating to British Columbia in 1973, he became a Canadian citizen, requalified as a lawyer and practiced law until his retirement. His first book, Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician (Ronsdale Press, 2019), received a Jeanne Clarke Memorial Award. His second book, Pinkerton's and the Hunt for Simon Gunanoot , and his third book, Murders on the Skeena: True Crime in the Old Canadian West , were both published by Caitlin Press. All three books were bestsellers in BC. Geoff and his wife Alice live in Vancouver and have two sons.

Description for Sales People

Though lesser-known, Hazelton has a long and significant history in British Columbia as an essential location for the development of packing and trading between pioneers and the Indigenous community.

Details