Makinak is a Cree word meaning turtle. However, according to some sources Makinak also means “good trail.” It is believed that both the place and its post office were named after the Turtle River about 10 km (6 miles) to the east.
Makinak is a community northwest of McCreary in the Rural Municipality of Lakeshore. It was once a bustling place. Active there at one time were a blacksmith, barbershop, boarding houses, livery barn, doctor, schoolhouse and creamery. It also had a photographer and taxidermist, a cement block factory and metal plating shop. It had a Post Office and a School District and was a point on the Canadian Northern Railway.
The Post Office opened in 1897 with Joseph E. D’Aoust as postmaster. The D’Aoust family was closely associated with Makinak from those early years when “it was surrounded by bush, water and stumps.”
In 1897 a shipload of 40 orphaned boys were brought from England by Father Douglas, a Roman Catholic priest and English lord. The intent was to teach the boys farming skills on a 960-acre land grant, the St. Joseph’s Farm Home. This charitable project did not succeed however. So after four years the boys were placed in private homes and Father Douglas returned to England. In 1912 the home was relocated to Winnipeg.
Religious services in the Makinak district began about 1898 in private homes or in the hall over the Alfred Douglas hardware store. The charge was served by students, and ministers from Dauphin.
The Methodist Circuit was centred on Makinak and Ochre River. In 1909 it included the preaching points of Hamilton School, Bay Centre, Dickson, Canadaville, Laurier and South Makinak (later called Carrick), Turtle River, East Bay, and Million.
In 1909 Katie Gunn, John N. Campbell and William Campbell donated land for a church. It was built by carpenter James Church, and bricklayers George Lowther and George Rudd. It was officially opened in July 1911 as an Union church, shared by both Presbyterians and Methodists. In 1925 it became Makinak United Church when the congregations officially joined The United Church of Canada.
• Photographed in 1987.
• Published in Senior Scope, April 10, 2021.
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