Home > Flin Flon, Manitoba

Flin Flon was founded in the late 1920s by mining firms eager to exploit the large copper and zinc supplies in the region. The town grew considerably during the 1930s as farmers, left impoverished by the Great Depression, abandoned their farms and came to work at the mines. The city has continued to be a mining center, with several recent mines adding to its industry. With a scenic setting and a number of nearby lakes, Flin Flon has also become a moderately popular tourist destination.

Like Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan, Flin Flon also straddles a provincial border, in this case, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, though only a small section of the city is located in the former province.

1 Origin of the name

The town's name is taken from the lead character in a paperback novel, The Sunless City. A prospector named Tom Creighton found the book in the wilderness. The story is about a man named Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, who dived in a bottomless lake in a submarine. Passing through a hole lined with gold, he found a strange underground world.

When Tom Creighton discovered a rich vein of almost pure copper, he thought of the book and called it Flin Flon's mine, mercifully shortening the name.

2 Marijuana production

Flin Flon gained international notoriety in 2002 when the Canadian government awarded a four-year contract to a Saskatoon company to produce medicinal marijuana.

Medicinal marijuana is only available in Canada with a doctor's prescription. Users of medicinal marijuana in Canada must agree to provide information to Health Canada for research purposes.

Since the original stock of marijuana seeds was obtained from police drug raids, there was some lack of consistency in the early crops of medicinal marijuana. After selective use of seeds from the first crop, subsequent generations have shown to have more consistent quality.

3 External links

• Prairie Plant Systems official site