Tracey Nyland read from her new book ‘The Mountain That Walks’ on Thursday at Fort Macleod Library.
Tracey Nyland found inspiration for her first novel in an unexpected place — her grandmother’s house.
Nyland visited her grandmother regularly after moving to Lethbridge from St. John’s, NFLD in 2005, enjoying stories about the family history.
“When I’m visiting one day I find this box of old photos,” Nyland said. “She told me story after story after story about who the people (in the photos) were and what their lives were like.”
The photos and those family stories provided Nyland with the inspiration for The Mountain That Walks, a work of historical fiction set in the Crowsnest Pass.
Nyland was at Fort Macleod Library on Thursday evening for a discussion about her writing and new book, which she self-published through Amazon.
Nyland’s grandparents on both sides of her family came from the Czech Republic and worked in the coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass.
Her grandmother was born in Frank in 1917 and she told Nyland all about growing up in Frank and the Crowsnest Pass.
“Her memories were just so vivid,” Nyland said. “She really brought those people alive for me.”
The Mountain That Walks tells the story of Anna Rezak who in 1904 with her husband and young daughter leaves Europe for a 5,000-mile journey to Frank, Alta. The story is based on the life of Nyland’s great grandmother.
“She lived really an incredible life,” Nyland said. “She had a lot of courage and strength and compassion. She went through a lot of tragedy and poverty. They were poor but they were happy. They had a roof over their head and food on their table.”
The Mountain That Walks also explores the story of her great uncle who came with his younger sister to Blairmore, where he worked in a butcher’s shop.
The third story is about Nyland’s great aunt Mary, a beautiful, kind woman who suffered many losses in her life and had trouble getting over it.
“The book isn‘t all sad,” Nyland stressed. “There is a sense of community and how they looked after each other.”
Although she enjoyed writing while in school and diligently kept a diary through her adult life, Nyland never planned to become a writer.
“I didn’t set out to write a book,” Nyland said. “It was just listening to Grandma and hanging out with her. It just sort of evolved into one.”
After hearing her family’s stories Nyland became fascinated with the lives of immigrant families and the details of living in the early 1900s in the Crowsnest Pass. She soon found herself doing more research in museums, libraries and on the Internet.
“Also I spent a lot of time in the ’Pass,” Nyland said, adding it was at times emotional to stand at the opening of mines where her grandfathers and great uncles worked, and at the site of her grandmother’s home.
Nyland chose for the title The Mountain That Walks the name Indigenous people had for Turtle Mountain, which partially collapsed in 1903 and buried part of the town of Frank.
“It’s a big part of the story,” Nyland said of Turtle Mountain and the Frank Slide.
The Mountain That Walks was 13 years in the writing and Nyland was far from satisfied so she hired an eeidtor.
“The first draft read almost like a textbook,” Nyland said. “That’s not what I wanted to publish. I wanted it to be a novel.”
The Mountain That Walks follows the family up to 1927. Nyland is working on a second novel to continue the story that she hopes to publish this year.
Nyland is pleased to be able to share her grandmother’s stories with other people.
“I was really lucky to have her. She was just a gift. I consider her a gift.”
