Mink rancher, hotelier.
Born at Gilbert Plains on 2 May 1914 to Nellie Anastasia Mandryk (1879-1927) and Simon Shmon (1873-1937), he was raised there, but in adulthood spent most of his life in northern Manitoba. At the age of 18, he started going up to trap during the winter and deliver mail by dog team. Back south, he worked on the roads in summer, followed the harvest west in autumn, then returned to his trap line at Hemming Lake in November.
In 1942, while at Hemming Lake, he established a silver fox farm, then branched out into mink ranching, one of the first in the Sherridon area. By 1945, he had too many animals for the lake to support, so he moved his mink ranch to Big Island in Kississing Lake. He was always going forward with new projects. In 1950, he moved his mink ranch into the village of Cold Lake and formed a partnership in a fish packing plant.
In 1946, he married Emily Theresa Nash and they went on to have two children. In the early 1950s, because of his expertise with mink ranching, he was invited by the Newfoundland government to relocate and teach others how to set up and run a mink farm. He declined and instead purchased the Hotel Cambrian in Sherridon in 1954 and moved there with his wife and children. Through the hotel operation, he introduced tourism into the Sherridon area. He ran the business for most of his adult life, usually maintaining his mink ranch at the same time.
In 1970, he was elected Mayor of Sherridon and held the position for 14 years, working to improve living conditions for all. He was most proud of his work with the Northern Association of Community Councils (NACC) for the betterment of all the northern communities. He felt his greatest accomplishment was forcing a settlement for the people affected by a hydroelectric project that flooded Southern Indian Lake. A born storyteller, he published a book at the age of 92 about a real-life northern adventurer, Dick Madole, called King of the North.
He died at Winnipeg on 6 October 2009 and was buried in the Thomson in the Park Cemetery.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Hotel Cambrian (Sherridon, Northern Manitoba)
Birth registration [Walter Szmon], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 9 October 2009.
“Walter Norman Shmon,” Seabrook Family Tree, Ancestry.
“About the author,” dickmadole.blogspot.com.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 28 August 2025
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