Josie Teed seems a tad young to be writing a memoir, but her inaugural book, British Columbiana: A Millennial in a Gold Rush Town, was a cathartic experience that shaped her path ahead, and she was compelled to share it.
It is the story of a young woman trying to find modern-day connection and purpose, while living in a rural village seemingly frozen in the past.
“I was born in Welland and lived in Port Colborne for the first few years, but most my childhood memories are set in Fenwick,” she said. “I attended E.L. Crossley Secondary School, then moved to Montreal, where I studied cultural studies and art history at McGill, followed up with a Masters in medieval archaeology in the United Kingdom at the University of York. Thereafter, I moved to northern British Columbia for a year, where the events of my book took place. I'm living back in Montreal currently.”
Josie’s memoir details her post-graduation job in Barkerville, a remote heritage site in British Columbia showcasing the 19th century gold rush. She lived in the adjacent village of Wells, a small tourist town, where hunting and fishing were popular. Once a thriving gold mining community in the 1930s, Wells has become “a haven for white Gen-X artists and flower children, struggling actors-turned-heritage-interpreters, and transient miners,” according to Teed’s publicist.
“I got a job at the Barkerville historic town and park, a heritage site in rural BC. There was no real grocery store, no cellphone service. It was very quiet. The story is really about me coming of age, and grappling with who I am going to be as an adult, and navigating relationships towards adulthood. The book is kind of a confessional, a story about my personal exploration,” said Teed.
Billy Barker’s legendary 1862 gold strike at Williams Creek in BC triggered a multi-billion dollar industrial revolution that helped build the province. Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush, and is preserved as a historic town. It is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains.
Asked how much of her book draws on her childhood experiences in Fenwick, Teed responded, “Not very much, honestly. I don't think there are many references to Pelham. My book is set in a small town, like Fenwick, though the towns in northern BC are a lot more scattered and rural.”
A recurring question Teed asks herself in the book is whether Barkerville and Wells were the kind of places where she could comfortably put down roots.
“I know that a lot of people end up there as part of a healing journey, seeking a place of refuge,” she said. “I wondered whether it would be a safe place for me, somewhere I could belong. But by the end of the book, I was ready to move on to something more stimulating, I guess, to face the outside world again. That’s why I’m back in Montreal. I think I was using Wells to try to force a sense of belonging, or create a sense of community and peace and self-confidence, that maybe just has to come with time. Maybe if I moved there in ten years, it would be a perfect fit, but like I said, by the end of the book, it was time for me to go.”
Although she is working at an immigration law firm in Montreal to pay the bills, Teed said that writing is definitely her chosen career path now.
“It's tough to work and write at the same time, but it's rewarding. So I’m moving slowly, but yeah, I'm definitely pursuing other writing projects.
Dundurn Press is Teed’s publisher. The book is available online in paperback and tablet versions.
As for future projects, Teed said that she and a friend are currently collaborating on a romantic comedy script, and that an historical fiction book about a court case in the 17th century in the UK is also in the works.
And her current connection with her hometown?
“I wasn't the most vivacious or outgoing high school student, but I do have a few friends from my Crossley days that I still keep in touch with,” she said. “My family — parents and two sisters — still live in Pelham. I'm back home every Christmas, and then usually I make it back a couple other times throughout the year.”