Wilderness Beginnings

Born into a comfortable middle-class German family, Paul Hertel left Germany in 1929 for a taste of adventure in the Canadian wilds before he was to settle down to run the family business. For the next five years he had the ultimate adventure. He rode the rails across Canada, homesteaded north of Burns Lake, picked fruit in the Okanagan and punched cattle in the Nicola Valley. Just after the Nazis won their first election, Paul returned to Germany.

Urged by his bride-to-be, Grete, but over the protests of his family, Paul returned to BC with Grete, but as the World War II approached they faced rising anti-German sentiments. Feeling uncomfortable and unwanted in the south, they moved to the wilds of northern BC where they homesteaded in the Smithers area.

Wilderness Beginnings is an amazing story - partly because it is a true one which shows how recent our frontier actually is-but also because it is a story of courage, of an individual who wouldn't say "enough already" and pack it in. Paul Hertel just picked himself up again and kept on.

If there were ever a 20th-century swashbuckler, it would be Paul Hertel.

Born and raised in Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island, Rose Hertel-Falkenhagenhas lived in Canada, Germany and is now a resident of California. Her sense of adventure and travel reflect the spirit of her pioneering parents, Paul and Grete Hertel.