Who, Where and When

The unanticipated discovery of over 3,700 names of mink ranchers before 1940 presented us with a worrisome problem in the organization of this history. Originally we intended to tell the stories of the early mink people, province by province, and to add the names and addresses of the few, about which we knew only their identity, at the end of the appropriate provincial chapters. When the few became many we abandoned this plan and decided to list all ranchers alphabetically by province as the final chapter. The "when" is the date when these people were first mentioned. In a few instances, it is the date when they started mink ranching but mostly it is the first record of their existence as mink people. It serves two purposes. It establishes where they fit in the scheme of things and it enables future researchers to look in the proper area for further information.

Fur Farming in Canada 2nd edition 1914, is our earliest major source. From then to 1924, fur magazines and newspapers filled the gap. In 1924, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics began an eleven-year period of listing all fur farmers' names and addresses. There were some years missed. We could not find the 1925 list and we know there was no list in 1930 and the 1931 and 1932 lists were combined. The 1935 list was the last to have Canada-wide names and addresses. We were delighted to find the Yukon Territory mink ranchers listed in this eleven-year period.

In 1938, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics published a list of fur farmers in the Maritimes.

Ontario Department of Game and Fisheries fur farm license list for 1939 contained over 800 mink rancher names. Stephen Poliquin sent us the 1940 Quebec list of licensed mink ranchers. It was a faded copy and we are in doubt as to some names and many initials.

Lists of names are fine things for a historian to have, but if it hadn't been for the various fur magazines we wouldn't have known much about these people. All the preceding chapters derive much of their interesting information from the publications. The present-day mink industry owes a debt of gratitude to the editors who preserved our early history.