Pioneers Pan Phillips and his partner Rich Hobson carved their places in ranching history when they discovered grass beyond the mountains in the far reaches of the Chilcotin. Thanks to a series of hugely popular books, their exploits became the stuff of legend and Phillips became one of Canada’s enduring folk heroes.

But if a man had to be tough to survive some of the roughest living in creation, what did a young girl have to be? This is the story of Pan Phillips’ daughter Diana, who learned to trap muskrat when she was little more than a toddler, worked with haying crews before she was into her teens and was renowned as the only person feisty enough to best her legendary father in a slanging match.