Born in Sheffield, England in 1909, Ralph Hall immigrated to British Columbia and settled 13 miles northeast of Vanderhoof at Chilco. His reminiscences of travelling to the Omineca gold fields with his friend Bill Timms in 1935 led to Goldseekers (Sono Nis, 1978), an appreciation of the men, desperate for work, who sought employment in the mines of the Fort St. James-Manson Creek-Germansen area. "Despite the influx of hundreds of men from all walks of life," he wrote, "crime was almost non-existent."

[BCBW 2004] "Gold"