Memorable Manitobans: Kathleen “Kate” Rice (1883-1964)

Prospector.

Born at St. Marys, Ontario in 1883, daughter of Henry Lincoln Rice, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1906 then worked as a math teacher. She taught in Belleville, Ontario before moving to Western Canada where she taught mathematics in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1913, she and her brother Lincoln staked a homestead near The Pas, Manitoba. Shortly thereafter, the First World War broke out; Lincoln joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and she stayed on the homestead alone. After teaching herself about geology and prospecting, she headed to the Herb Lake area north of The Pas. She claimed an island—later called Rice Island—in Wekusko Lake, which turned out to be very rich in copper and nickel.

While it is rumoured that Rice and her business partner, Richard “Dick” Woosey, turned down $250,000 for their property, she eventually sold it to the International Nickel Company (INCO) for approximately $20,000.

After Woosey’s death she lived alone for twenty years and wrote a thesis on the aurora borealis and some articles. She committed herself to an asylum in Brandon, where she died in 1964. A collection of her papers are at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

See also:

Kate Rice Prospector by Helen Duncan, 1984.

High Stakes and Hard Times: Herb Lake and Depression-Era Mining in Northern Manitoba by Will Steinburg
Manitoba History, Number 68, Spring 2012

Sources:

Kathleen Rice Fonds, University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

We thank Jean Paterson for providing additional information used here.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 14 July 2012

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