Cyril Shelford excelled at many things, but his writing is what we will remember best. Born the youngest of 4 boys in 1921 to Jack and Sarah Shelford, Cyril began at a young age to record what he saw around him.

His memories, along with his Uncle Arthur's and his father's, are set out in four books written between 1987 and 1993. The titles are: From Snowshoes To Politics, We Pioneered, From War To Wilderness and Think Wood!

In his books, Cyril takes time to paint clear, colorful pictures of life as a pioneer at Ootsa Lake, south of Burns Lake. Homeschooled by his parents, Cyril also became a student of the wilderness, learning to understand nature in his remote surroundings. In From Snowshoes to Politics, Cyril explains how they made snowshoes and how they trapped, ice fished and hunted.

He was expected to work hard at everything he did - haying, feeding the animals, going on a cattle drive or chopping wood. His list of chores was long but Cyril seemed to face everything with a sense of adventure and wonder. His father believed you had to be tough to face life: if you wanted to succeed you had to do your very best and a little bit more. More than anything, Cyril learned to think for himself and make do with what he had. These attributes he says "...turned out to be some of my greater assets later in life."