Gerry Hart and Bobby Clarke
mural at the hockey arena
local getaway
Falling for Flin Flon
Manitoba mining town or Canada’s capital of quirk?
apart from
other northern towns: Jagged rocky
outcroppings; a world-class choir;
flies the size of birds. And, as many a
Flin Flonner likes to brag, it’s the only
city in the world named after a
character from a dime-store
science-fiction novel.
It’s also become the
unofficial supplier of
hockey greats: At
least 17 NHL players have come out of
the town (population
5,500), including Ken
Baumgartner, Reggie
Flinty
Leach, Gerry Hart
welcomes
and the “Toothless
visitors
to town
Wonder” himself, Bobby
Clarke.
Many things set Flin Flon
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Located 740 kilometres northwest of
Winnipeg, Flin Flon rests on the edge
of the Canadian Shield, surrounded
by cliffs and with a lake smack dab in
its centre. It’s a city of incredible but
challenging landscapes. On a recent
hiking trip with Winnipeg-based
Prairie Pathfinders, I discovered
so much more about this quirky
mining outpost that I returned
home firmly believing Flin Flon is
the coolest small town in Canada.
My hiking group arrives one
early afternoon, just as the sun
is washing over Flin Flon’s
craggy greenstone ledges. Such
natural beauty is in stark contrast to the 251-metre-high
smokestack that defines
Flin Flon’s skyline. But that
decidedly unglamorous
landmark is a reminder of the importance of mining here—and one that’s
revered by locals, who lovingly refer to
it as “The Stack.”
The town’s mining legacy began in
1914 with Flin Flon’s first prospector,
Tom Creighton. According to legend,
Creighton stumbled upon a tattered
copy of a sci-fi novel while walking
in a nearby forest. The Sunless City
by J.E. Preston Muddock told the
fantastic story of Josiah Flintabbatey
Flonatin, who steered a submarine into
a gold-coated tunnel and discovered a
hidden civilization.
At the edge of that same forest,
Creighton spotted residual thick veins
of zinc, copper, silver and gold. In
1915, he claimed the mine and named
it Flin Flon, after the hero of his
found novel. Today, a 24-foot statue
all photos: randy whitbread
By Karen Burshtein