From The Ground Up

"I always believed that women could do anything men could, if they were just prepared to put their minds to it and get down to work." She was the first successful woman miner in Canada, probably in the world. She transformed the Prospectors and Developers Association from a ragtag crew of rock enthusiasts into a nationwide organization of geologists, engineers, and other mining professionals. She rose from her humble beginnings near Bracebridge, Ontario, to become one of the country's wealthiest female entrepreneurs and a member of the Order of Canada. And she was a key player in the Windfall scandal of the 1960s and suffered its side effects behind bars. Viola MacMillan was a mining dynamo, a legend in the testosterone-driven, wheeling-dealing venture that is Canadian mining. In this rags-to-riches autobiography, MacMillan offers a passionate account of her life in the bush, her rise to fame, and the setbacks she endured along the way. To put the story in context, Virginia Heffernan provides a snapshot of the Canadian mining industry during MacMillan's heyday, including the events that led to her jail sentence and eventual pardon. Through extensive interviews and research, Heffernan pieces together the backdrop to Macmillan's entertaining life story.