Beginning with Frank's BC Penitentiary admission form, Brenda L. Smith works from his German roots, across North America to his years on a trapline in the Finlay River Valley. Frank Weber operated his trapline in the Finlay River Valley from 1917 until his death in 1952. The story of his solitary occupation and encounters with neighbours and sojourners illuminates fur-trading life on the eastern slope of the Rockies in the first half of the last century. Weber's life has been described in accounts of local events, as well as the surveying of BC's northeast and the Bedeaux Expedition.

Brenda L. Smith is a writer and researcher in Maple Ridge. Presently, Brenda is a founding member of the Maple Ridge Family History Group, and a member of its Community History Project Team.