Alex McIntosh was born on a farm in Lancaster Township, Glengarry Country, Ontario, the son of Scottish immigrants who had arrived in Canada in 1832. He was raised on the family farm and, at 18 years of age, came to Western Canada on the “Harvest Excursion” of 1907-08 and worked at Transcona, Manitoba for that winter. For the next four years, McIntosh worked in the Caribou district of British Columbia for a lumber and navigation company and, for three more years, for the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway where his uncle, J. D. McArthur, had contracts to build the railways. He then joined the Royal North West Mounted Police (RNWNP), was stationed in the Peace River country and, during the First World War, served overseas with the RNWMP. On his return to Canada, he homesteaded at Rio Grand in the Grand Prairie region of Alberta.
In 1923, McIntosh arrived in the Lac du Bonnet area to work as a carpenter’s helper for J. D. McArthur. He worked for a while at Beaconia and the Manitoba Paper Company mill site at Pine Falls during its construction. However, he spent most of the next five years in charge of a sawmill at Great Falls. By 1925, he had acquired 810 hectares (2,000 acres) of land from J. D. McArthur and an additional 10,880 hectares (42 square miles) of forest along the Winnipeg River north of Lac du Bonnet. He continued to farm, operate sawmills, and cut pulpwood. He had cut and delivered up to 10,000 cords of pulpwood a year to the Pine Falls mill.
During the Second World War, as many as 200 men were employed running his saw and planing mills, operating his local lumberyard, and cutting and hauling pulpwood to the Pine Falls mill. McIntosh subdivided some of the 810 hectares (2,000 acres) for the development of residential lots in Lac du Bonnet. He often sold lots on credit and loaned lumber and bricks to buyers to build their homes. McIntosh retired in 1950 having passed his farming and other enterprises on to his son, Ramsay. Alex McIntosh died at age 92. McIntosh Street in Lac du Bonnet is named in his memory.
Alex McIntosh Commemorative Plaque (August 2010)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.26187, W96.05382
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Inter-West Fuel and Peat Company (Lac du Bonnet)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lac du Bonnet Brick Plant (Lac du Bonnet)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lac du Bonnet Sawmill (Lac du Bonnet)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: John Duncan McArthur Commemorative Plaque (Lac du Bonnet)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: William Walter Wardrop Commemorative Plaque (Lac du Bonnet)
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 31 January 2021
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