May Minto

May Minto was born near South Lake, Ontario in 1916 and, in 1920, moved with her family to Gull Lake where her father was the foreman on the construction of a survey school camp for the University of Toronto. In her teen years she helped her parents with the running of the camp she also acted as foreman in the construction of new camp buildings – working along with the men. During the war she and her twin sister worked in various war-time manufacturing plants in Toronto.

May’s family began building canoes for the survey camp and for others in the area. As word of their craftsmanship spread the orders kept coming in and they decided it was time to really go into business. With her brothers moving away and her father unable to keep up by himself May took it on. In 1956 they moved to Minden where they opened Minto Marine. What did the men with whom she worked think about it? “I was their boss so they either worked for me or they had to go. I was the only one who knew how to build the canoes.”

For decades she hand crafted 25 canoes a year; cutting the wood, bending it into shape and then fitting it together into one of the most graceful modes of transportation ever invented. “There’s just something about a canoe that’s extra nice”, she says “and I think we had the best looking canoes around.

She became so good at it that when her brother decided to sell Minto Marine and she decided to retire too, the new owner begged her to come back when he realized he’d never be able to build an order of 12 canoes over the winter. She was 66 years old and those canoes were ready by the spring.

Working hard and working at a man’s job seemed to come naturally to May. Whether it was making canoes, constructing new buildings at the University of Toronto Survey Camp on Gull Lake or becoming a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ during the war. “I just loved it. I liked it much better than housework”.