Album: My Travel to Flin Flon, Manitoba

We live in Regina, Saskatchewan. Photos here are from a journey we made to Flin Flon, Manitoba, a former hometown of my wife and her family. It is also the place where we were married, and the place where we returned a few years later to take a teaching job in the high school. On this occasion, we made this trip in late October to attend the funeral of my wife’s cousin.

These pictures and captions explain something of the countryside and the characteristics of a northern mining town in Canada.

Click on the first photo below to view 39 photos here in large format.

Map showing the full extent of the Province of Saskatchewan. Note the location of Flin Flon, on the border with neighbouring province of Manitoba.

Today we will follow Highway # 6 north of Regina, then link with the Hanson Lake Road to Flin Flon.

Packing for our travel. It has snowed. We must travel this weekend to meet family for a funeral tomorrow. We have good winter tires on our car.

Still in the city. The snow is melting as it falls. It could be icy if it gets colder.

Now out of the city… this is flat prairie land. Yes, it is colder here, but the road is not icy.

The Qu’Appelle Valley is a beauty spot in the summer. A huge valley with almost no water. Thank the glacier period of a few million years ago.

A rural farm. There will be a family home, machine sheds, and granaries (you can see two big ones over the trees).

A small town…. maybe a 1000 people. The town is the service centre for the surrounding farming community.

Now 380 km into our journey and have been on the road for 3.5 hours. We refueled and purchased some burgers and drinks to eat in the car.

We are now starting the Hanson Lake Road… and will leave towns and farms behind us. Flin Flon is a mining town far from other populated areas.

There are only two major service centres along this road. Only 72 km this time, but later, it will be 117km to another place to buy gas or food.

We catch a glimpse of our last farm along this road.

Now the forest closes in on both sides. Mostly spruce trees which stay green all winter. We like to cut the smaller ones for Christmas trees.

We encounter a “snow shower”. The road is good, and the beautiful white snow makes the scene even more pretty.

It doesn’t last that long… and soon we are back to dry weather.

From time to time we get a brief glance at some lakes. There are hundreds of such lakes in the north of our province. Great for hunting and fishing.

We are now about 50 km from our destination after 6 hours of travel. I know this country, and have enjoyed fishing in these waters many years ago.

The welcome sign for Flin Flon has welcomed people for at least 50 years. Note the little man in the background on the pedestal.

Flin Flon was named after a character called Flintabity Flonatin from a storybook found by the prospector who discovered gold here.

This is one of the small engines and ore cars that are used in mining underground.

Flin Flon is a mining town. Houses and buildings are perched on rocks. It is a small city with a mining history of almost 80 years.

Originally, mining was “open pit,” then a mine shaft went down and for many decades mining for copper, zinc, and gold was done here.

Some mine shafts have now closed, but ore from other regional mines is shipped here for processing.

Downtown Flin Flon looks rather old. Mining towns often close down when the ore body is used up. Such fears prevent development in such towns.

A picturesque city, but note the boxed-in water and sewer pipes, all above ground since it is impossible to bury them here.

My wife spent about 8 years of her youth here in this city. Her family lived in the larger house here on the right when I first came to visit them.

We arive in Flin Flon and find the home of our cousins. The husband and father, age 82, has passed away. We are here for his funeral.

We were married in this church. It will also be the location for the funeral this weekend. (Watch for a separate photo collection describing the funeral.)

We once lived in this house, with the first two of our three children. Hmmm… it has not changed much in 40 years!!

Four years after our wedding, we came back to Flin Flon where I taught math in this high school.

Two of our daughters were born in this hospital. However, we only met that last daughter three years later when we returned to arrange her adoption.

And this was the hotel we used when we returned to meet and adopt our daughter Angela.

One of the ten lakes in the immediate area of the town. We once lived in a house that overlooked this “duck pond”.

On our way home again. More snow over the weekend. Almost 7 hours travel ahead of us.

We stop briefly at this lake along the road. The water is starting to freeze over.

Just next to the lake is a sign that gives a bit of history of this long (300 km) wilderness road. Maybe you can read some of the details in the next image.

This sign explains about a huge forest fire that swept through this area. Also, explanations of some of the plants and animals of the area.

A snow plow. It is also equipped to spread sand and salt. The road here has been treated with salt and the snow is melting.

We are now back into more populated areas. The snow has stopped. We have a good road. Just another 300 km to complete our journey home.

First published here: 2016/07/18 Published earlier on OneDrive
Latest revision: 2018/11/29