Dominion of Mercy - The Voice

 

The world needs strong feminine voices. My mother was a strong woman, as was her mother, my grandmother. As three of my grandparents were from Scotland, it is the only immigrant story that I can tell with some certainty. There my story begins, Edinburgh - 1917, and Mary Stewart, a force of nature, embarks on epic journey that will take all her courage, strength and wit. And the destination, something I know as well. The town of Anyox, British Columbia, the perfect setting. I remember as a boy, my father telling me that his father was sent to Anyox to work in the copper smelter in 1916. Anyox was located on the north coast near the BC/Alaskan border deep down Observatory Inlet. Nothing is left of the town now except an emerging forest and towering stacks from the smelter. I wanted to bring it back to life. That was exciting, to breathe new life into the plank streets. It was a short-lived company town of 3000 residents. A robust community that enjoyed a certain affluence from 1914 to 1935, but ended abruptly due to falling copper prices. Anyox was totally destroyed by a forest fire in 1943. British Columbia has a history of ghost towns, boom and bust towns. Not much remains except vintage photographs, and scattered buildings that have survived flood and fire. 

In writing Dominion of Mercy, a historical fiction novel, I recognize that the town of Anyox was located on the unceded traditional territory of the Nisga'a people.