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Kathleen 'Kate' Rice's exploits have long been a part of local lore. Now thanks to MaryAnn Mihychuk, many others throughout Canada will become familiar with Rice's inspiring story. Mihychuk, community development officer for the Town of Snow Lake, has secured Rice's posthumous induction into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. Thanks to Mihychuk's hundreds of hours of research, performed with the help of dozens of analysts over two years, Kathleen Creighton Starr Rice will be inducted into the Hall at a ceremony at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto on January 16, 2014. Rice was born in 1883 in St. Marys, Ontario. Schooled there, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1906 with a Bachelor of Mathematics. She taught school in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta before trading her books for a pickaxe and paddle and taking on the unlikely trade of prospector during northern Manitoba's gold rush. Aided by local First Nations, Rice traveled by dog team and canoe through Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Ultimately, 800 kilometres north of The Pas to Reindeer Lake, she discovered zinc and vanadium in 1914. After moving to the Wekusko Lake area, she staked gold claims along strike with the Rex, Kiski and Bingo gold mines. In the early 1920s, Rice formed a partnership with Richard 'Dick' Woosey, staking one of the first nickel properties in Manitoba _ the one that lured Inco (now Vale) to the province. Rice and Woosey later formed a company to drill the claims, resulting in a high-grade discovery, valued in 1925 at $5 million. Rice was also an innovator, credited with introducing the use of borax crystals for determining metal type to the West. Her intellectual curiosity was wide ranging, and covered topics as diverse as a scientific paper on the Aurora Borealis to plans for hydro-generation at Wekusko Falls. Rice was a journalist, an inventive dog trainer, a horticulturist and a pioneer environmentalist with a deep appreciation of First Nations culture and knowledge. Mihychuk discovered all this and much more in her research of Rice, but it all started when she asked a Snow Lake town employee to name some famous people in the area, thinking there would be an opportunity to highlight them. Rice's name came up at that time. 'It was embarrassing,' Mihychuk said. 'I started an organization called Women in Mining and we'd obviously been researching women and their involvement in the industry, and I had never heard of Kate Rice.' Mihychuk says that once she started to delve into Rice's life, she was captivated by a woman who left the wealth and comfort of her early life in Ontario to eke out a living in the wilds of northern Manitoba. Mihychuk admits that it was part of her job to work on the Hall of Fame submission, but it is obvious that it was also personal. 'Kate Rice's story epitomizes the entrepreneurial prospector's spirit,' she said. 'This was an individual who was so remarkable, who could have at any time gone back to being a well-cared for Victorian Lady, but she had the spirit of discovery, which I think is also here in Snow Lake. See 'Chance' on pg. Continued from pg. 'And because her span was so large, I thought it was an opportunity for us to raise the profile of Snow Lake. It also fit in well with the mineral exploration, mining theme that the town wants to develop.' Two organizations sponsored the Hall of Fame nomination, the Town of Snow Lake and Women in Mining Manitoba, of which Mihychuk is president. As it stands now, Mayor Clarence Fisher will represent the town at the event and Mihychuk will represent Women in Mining. Mihychuk says that Women in Mining will likely send five or six people to the event and she hopes the town will also send a larger delegation. The recognition will consist of a plaque that will be given to the family or their representatives. As well, the individual's history is placed in the Hall with the many other mining legends. Presentation There is also a multi-media presentation that is made of each inductee's life and legend. Those interested would be able to see this at the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame display within the Royal Ontario Museum. There will also be copies of the display exhibited in Ottawa, possibly in Rice's hometown of St. Marys, Ontario, and hopefully somewhere in her chosen home of Snow Lake. 'She will be the second female ever to be inducted to the Hall,' said Mihychuk. 'There are about 165 other individuals in the collection and Viola MacMillan is the only other woman.' MacMillan was a mining financier from the Timmins Ontario area. She is credited with founding the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. As noted, a tremendous amount of research about Rice's life serves as the basis for her induction. Mihychuk said that institutions such as The Pas' Sam Waller Museum, Flin Flon's Station Museum, and Denare Beach's Northern Gateway Museum were invaluable in the process, as was the work that was done by Women in Mining. 'We probably have the largest collection ever of information about Kate Rice through our work,' said Mihychuk. 'Once I got the bug, I would do it on weekends and evenings, whenever. It just becomes such a mystery to see if we could pull it all together.' Much of the research came from archives and newspaper articles from across the country, the U.S., and even England. Mihychuk and her researchers took the position that if information couldn't be substantiated with a third party, it required more work. Of everything they discovered, Mihychuk says the most surprising thing she found in the research was how broad Rice's knowledge base and expertise was. 'This was a woman who was extremely intelligent,' Mihychuk said. Mihychuk said securing the induction was an enormous battle. She admits that initially there were a lot of naysayers, mostly because many prior inductees had found enormous mines. That put Rice at a disadvantage as her Rice Island deposit (though still held by Vale) was never developed. Mihychuk said having the Town of Snow Lake and Women in Mining on board, as well as a dozen or so endorsement letters certainly helped. The Northern Miner newspaper was also instrumental. It had run a number of stories on Rice when she was prospecting and continue to be great supporters of her legacy. Interestingly, Mihychuk says the University of Winnipeg theatrical department is now looking for funding to do a play about Rice. 'Her story has adventure, it has humour,' she said. 'It would be a perfect script for Hollywood _ Angelina Jolie as Kate Rice.' My Take on Snow Lake runs Fridays.
