He spent 63 years in different regions of the province, working among the Shuswap, Kootenai, Dakelh, Sekani, Gitxsan, Hagwilget, Babine and Lheidli T'enneh First Nations.

Nicholas Coccola left France for British Columbia on June 6, 1880 aboard the SS Gascoigne, arriving in New York City thirteen days later.

On one occasion he was sent with medicine for a son of a Chief in the Nicola Valley and when the man recovered, Coccola was sent on more sick calls to Fountain and Lillooet.

Upon learning that there was no evidence to support the charges, Chief Isador led a band of thirty warriors to Wild Horse Creek and broke the two suspects out of the gaol.

Coccola often visited and held Mass at Ainsworth, Kaslo and Nelson where churches and hospitals were being built to fill the demands of the rush of settlers caused by railway construction.

The rock was found by Joseph Bourgeois and its discovery was the beginning of the North Star Mine, which would be purchased for by the CPR's Donald Mann for $40,000 the following year.

In April 1893, Coccola had just returned to the mission when he was approached by a Kootenai man named Pierre or Pielle, who showed him just such a stone and led him to where he had found it near Moyie Lake.

Upon learning that the ore contained high percentages of silver, Coccola, Pielle and a Spokane developer by the name of James Cronin each staked a claim above Moyie Lake and registered them in Fort Steele on June 25.

Eventually the railway succeeded in negotiating for the 1,366-acre (5.53 km2) property and with Nicolas Coccola as the band's spokesman, the village was sold for $125,000 and a new reservation was built 16 miles (26 km) north on the Fraser River.

In April the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific was completed, but August brought the outbreak of World War I and Coccola returned to Fort St.

[1]: 169 By 1917, Prince George, Fort St. James and Hagwilget each had their own priests and Cocola held Mass and served at other towns along the rails such as Vanderhoof and McBride.

Coccola was made the principal of the Lejac school that fall and he served there on and off until 1925 when he went to Vancouver for a hernia operation and took some time to visit his old St. Eugene Mission.

[5] At Easter in 1940, although retired from missionary work, Coccola was summoned to Moricetown as the residents had found themselves without a priest for the holiday and they didn't want to go without Mass and Communion.