Commercial 81 In spite of all precautions taken, the Souris Ranch , like many others, was short-lived. Not everyone was able to give the half-wild foxes the special care they needed in captivity. The Company closed in 1920.64 The McKay Car The McKay car, one of the first built in Canada , had its beginning in Souris . The McKay brothers; Jack, business manager; Dan, salesman; and Stan, blacksmith and mechanic, were a great combination first in the carriage business in Bridgetowan and in Souris where they had a shop in the vacant James R. MacLean store on lower around 1900. McAlpine's Directory of 1900 advertises them as "manufacturers of car¬ riages, sleighs, farm wagons and all kinds of vehicles."65 rtfny Mr - Ray !*;inl A 1963 painting by Fred Robertson of a photo taken in 1893 of the James R. MacLean Store , located on south . It was later the Archibald Currie Store . Next to it is the Moynagh house. The painting hangs in Leard's Store , Souris . Around 1908, Dan McKay and Archie Pelton , both believers in the future of the motor car, imported a variety of parts from several firms in the United States and designed what was known as the McKay car. These were con¬ structed at Kentville, Nova Scotia and taken from there to a plant in Amherst for finishing touches and sold. A thirty horsepower Roadster sold for $1,300—for $2,050you could get a "Magnificent, luxurious forty horse¬ power, nickel trimmed, fully equipped, self-starting, five passenger touring car," according to the advertisement of the day.66 The business did well in Amherst from 1910 to 1915; but their Amherst building, constructed on swampy ground, soon needed repairs and this, together with demands of the War, brought the enterprise to an end.67