Minto is a small town 48 km. (30 miles) south of Brandon, Manitoba. The site was chosen in the late 19th century for a train station, where the Pembina Valley east/west railway was laid. Furthermore, two highways intersect, highway #23 runs east/west and goes through the southern part of the Argyle Settlement, through Baldur and further west. Highway #10 runs through Brandon south of Minto and continues across the border into N. Dakota. Many Icelandic immigrants found work on railroads and road construction in southern Manitoba in the last decades of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century. The Icelandic settlement stretched west of Baldur and Glenboro and many young men from there worked on the road from Baldur west to Minto. Bergmann Bergsson from Mýrasýsla and his wife, Lilja Jónasdóttir from Dalasýsla, homesteaded near the village in 1898 and lived there the rest of their lives. Their children grew up there and went to school.
Minto in the early 20th century. Train cars are stopped the at grain elevator, the church steeple is on the far right and the main road runs between the tracks and residential buildings. Photo: Prairie Towns.