User:CindyBo

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Hi Everybody. Wow, a lot has changed in the months since I took my unexpected wikibreak. (My job has been rather time consuming, but I hope to settle back in to a routine again soon). I live in Prince George and was born in Creston. About eight years ago I became fascinated with the history of our local sternwheelers and the era of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway construction. So fascinated that I wrote, and am still working on, a lengthy historical romance novel series set in Prince George, Prince Rupert and Hazelton through 1909 to 1918. In the course of writing them, I've bought and studied many local history books, and have sets of old newspaper articles relating to that period. I have a passion for the pictures of that era too and have several albums of them that I collect. The real history of these towns is far more interesting than anything I could make up and it makes a wonderful background for a long story. The sternwheelers and the big hotels, the railroad, land speculating, the brothels, the honor, the corruption...ect...ect... My research for these books often led me here to wikipedia, and still does. I'm only now beginning to realize the scope and importance of what wikipedia does and I am enjoying myself here. More writing for free, I guess can't get enough of it. I'm also studying the Great War, and have researched BC's role in it for about three years now. I've read a little of the propaganda/books/poetry that was written in Germany and England before and during that war. HG Wells said that it was a war started by writers, and that seems true enough.

Sandbox
My Sandbox

Commons
My page on Wikimedia Commons is here.

Some of my favorite fiction: kind of in order
I read fiction for joy and entertainment and to get lost in the world that the author created, so the bigger the better. But I also like to finish the book and be left with a feeling that all is right with the world, so I don't like anything too deep or gloomy. We can go to non-fiction if we want that and find plenty to choose from. So here's my list:
 * 1) JRR Tolkien Only me and a billion other people
 * 2) John Jakes
 * 3) Larry McMurty
 * 4) Jeffrey Deaver
 * 5) HG Wells
 * 6) Robert McCammon
 * 7) William Stuart Long
 * 8) Anton Myrer
 * 9) Ray Bradbury
 * 10) Stephen King
 * 11) Dean Koontz
 * 12) Greg Matthews
 * 13) Rudyard Kipling

Some of my favorite non-fiction
Canadian and world history: And lots and lots more, I'll read anything once.
 * 1) Pierre Berton
 * 2) Barbara Tuchman
 * 3) Eva Maclean
 * 4) Russell Walker
 * 5) Art Downs, Willis West, Norman Hacking and Wiggs O'Neill
 * 6) Jack Boudreau

Did you know?

 * ...that on average, laying the track leading up to the final spike of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway cost $112,000 a mile?
 * ...that William Moore was the earliest settler of Skagway, the famous gold rush town in the Klondike Gold Rush?
 * ...that Gustavus Blin Wright, a pioneer road builder and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada, built the 127-mile-long Old Cariboo Road in 1862–3?
 * ...that Irene Jordan of the South Fort George suburb of Prince George, British Columbia had owned a popular brothel that later became the first City Hall of Prince George?
 * ...that the SS Moyie (pictured) was the last working sternwheeler in Canada and is the oldest intact sternwheeler in the world?
 * that the Olson Hotel in Ainsworth, British Columbia had a two-story outhouse?
 * ...that Christina Lake, British Columbia has the first golf course in Canada to offer black sand traps?
 * ...that the Cody Caves are part of the setting of the children's book, The Kootenay Kidnapper by Canadian author Eric Wilson?
 * ...that there were no police in Cascade City, British Columbia in 1897 and when thieves broke into a store, taking 150 pounds of tobacco, a book-keeper was sent to arrest the suspects?
 * ...that the St. Eugene Mine in Moyie, British Columbia produced ten million dollars worth of ore between 1895 and 1905 and was considered to be the most important silver–lead mine in Canada?
 * ...that Oblate missionary Nicolas Coccola spent 63 years in British Columbia working among the Shuswap, Kootenai, Dakelh, Sekani, Gitxsan, Hagwilget, Babine and Lheidli T'enneh First Nations? Was he the guy outside Kellogg Idaho? where the mission is named for him?

Some funny things I've seen on Wikipedia lately

 * How many Wikipedians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
 * Talk archive:Orange (colour) or (color)

Editing milestones
=Articles I started and are ongoing=
 * My 500th edit Still figuring out those darned headings...[[Image:Confused.png|25px]]
 * My 1000th edit Trying to get people's children straight...[[Image:Confused.png|25px]]
 * My 1500th edit ''That would've been silly to leave like that![[Image:Confused.png|25px]]
 * My 2000th edit Working on the Inlander [[Image:Crystal ksmiletris.png|25px]]
 * My 2500th edit Categorizing pictures... glad that's done [[Image:Crystal ksmiletris.png|25px]]

My first article

 * Steamboats of the Upper Fraser River in British Columbia

Which led to writing these

 * Enterprise (1862)
 * Victoria (sternwheeler)
 * Charlotte (sternwheeler)
 * Quesnel (sternwheeler)
 * Nechacco (sternwheeler)
 * Fort Fraser (sternwheeler)
 * Chilcotin (sternwheeler)
 * Robert C Hammond (sternwheeler)
 * Conveyor (sternwheeler)
 * Operator (sternwheeler)
 * BX (sternwheeler) [[Image:Symbol support vote.svg|20px]]
 * BC Express (sternwheeler)

Which led to writing this

 * Steamboats of the Skeena River

Which means I have wrote (should write) these

 * Skeena (sternwheeler)
 * Union (sternwheeler)
 * Mumford (sternwheeler)
 * Caledonia (sternwheeler)
 * Monte Cristo (sternwheeler)
 * Stratchcona (sternwheeler)
 * Hazelton (sternwheeler)
 * Mount Royal (sternwheeler)
 * Pheasant (sternwheeler)
 * Northwest (sternwheeler)
 * Port Simpson (sternwheeler)
 * Distributor (sternwheeler)
 * Omineca (sternwheeler)
 * Inlander (sternwheeler)

And couldn't (shouldn't) leave out these

 * Skuzzy (sternwheeler)
 * City of Ainsworth
 * Moyie (sternwheeler)DYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Umatilla (sternwheeler)
 * Fort Yale (sternwheeler)
 * SS Rupert City
 * Lady of the Lake (sternwheeler)
 * Marzelle (sternwheeler)
 * Nelson (sternwheeler)

And then I wrote about these BC people
All below need notes reformatted, some need notes and expansion
 * Charles Bedaux
 * John Bonser (steamship captain)
 * Owen Forrester Browne
 * Cataline
 * Sperry Cline
 * Nicolas Coccola DYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Simon Gunanoot
 * John Houston (newspaperman)
 * John Irving (steamship captain)
 * William Irving (steamship captain)
 * Colin Kinsley
 * William Moore (steamship captain) DYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * William Pinchbeck
 * Frank Swannell
 * Stephen Tingley
 * Alfred Waddington
 * Gustavus Blin Wright DYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]

Along with these BC places
All need notes reformatted, some need notes and expansion and the settlement infobox


 * 70 Mile House, British Columbia
 * Ainsworth, British Columbia DYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Alexandria, British Columbia
 * Cascade City, British ColumbiaDYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Cassiar Country
 * Christina Lake, British ColumbiaDYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Cody CavesDYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Donald, British Columbia
 * Dunster, British Columbia
 * Giscome Portage
 * Horsefly, British Columbia
 * Millar Addition
 * Moyie, British ColumbiaDYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Paddlewheel Park
 * Phoenix, British Columbia
 * Quesnel Forks, British Columbia
 * South Fort GeorgeDYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Tete Jaune Cache, British Columbia

And also these BC events
All need notes reformatted, some need notes and expansion
 * Bedaux Expedition
 * Cariboo camels
 * Last Spike (Grand Trunk Pacific Railway) DYK[[Image:Updated DYK query.png|25px]]
 * Omineca Gold Rush

Other articles I contributed to a lot
All need notes reformatted, some need notes and expansion
 * William Barker (prospector)
 * Barnard's Express
 * Patrick Burns (politician)
 * Harry Colebourn
 * Hazelton, British Columbia
 * Charles Vance Millar
 * New Hazelton, British Columbia
 * Prince George, British Columbia
 * Collins Overland telegraph
 * Soda Creek
 * Walhachin, British Columbia
 * Williams Lake, British Columbia

Other articles I contributed to a little

 * Dean Koontz
 * Foley, Welch and Stewart
 * List of ships in British Columbia
 * Quesnel, British Columbia
 * Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
 * Francis Rattenbury
 * Winnipeg bear
 * Stikine Country
 * Nellie Cashman
 * J.H. Sullivan
 * Fort Steele

=Main "to do" list=

What I'd like to get to Aug-Sept
Make these ship articles: Go over early sternwheeler articles and improve them as much as possible.✅
 * Central Fort George
 * Northwest (sternwheeler)
 * Distributor (sternwheeler)
 * Omineca (sternwheeler)
 * Nelson (sternwheeler)

Go over biography articles and improve them as much as possible.

Expand and add pictures to: and create:
 * Balfour, British Columbia

Help with clean-up of:
 * Riverboat

What I've been procrastinating over and must get to

 * Add to Cariboo Gold Rush

BC articles that need creation (people)

 * George Ainsworth
 * Joseph Bucey
 * Charles Bulkley
 * John Calbreath
 * Peter Dunlevy
 * Stuart Henderson
 * Frank Laumeister
 * Billy Moore (steamship captain)
 * James Reid
 * Charles Seymour (steamship captain)
 * James Trahey
 * Alexander Watson (shipbuilder)
 * Alexander Watson Jr (shipbuilder)

BC articles that need creation (towns)

 * Westwold, British Columbia
 * Fort Stikine
 * Fort Taku
 * Fort Grahame
 * Quick, British Columbia
 * Kitselas Canyon
 * Takla Landing
 * Fort McLeod or redirect to and expand McLeod Lake, British Columbia
 * Bulkley House, British Columbia
 * And plenty more at List of ghost towns in British Columbia

BC articles that need creation (gold rush)

 * Atlin Gold Rush
 * Cassiar Gold Rush
 * Overlanders (British Columbia)
 * Peace River Gold Rush Do you mean the gold strike in the Three Forks canyon?
 * Stikine Gold Rush
 * Waddington's Road

Existing BC articles to be expanded (people)
Robert Cunningham Needs pic too

Existing BC articles to be expanded (towns and places)

 * Grand Canyon of the Fraser
 * Kaslo, British Columbia
 * Balfour, British Columbia
 * Port Essington, British Columbia ✅

Existing BC articles to be expanded (gold rush)

 * Vessels of the Lakes Route
 * Chilcotin War Although not any time soon. I find the the topic a bit overwhelming and difficult to find sources for and am more comfortable working on its associated articles.

Misc stuff to do

 * Category: Northern Interior of British Columbia related. Figure out main articles for the ones missing them: Greater Prince George, Bulkley and Skeena. And figure out where boundaries are in the categories to be: Atlin, Nass and Liard.
 * Pacific Western Brewery
 * Salmon Valley
 * Bridges of Hazelton