Flin Flon, Manitoba (pop. 7243) is a mining town on the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. It is located at 54° 46′ N, 101° 51′ W.

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 the development of several mines adding to its industrial base. 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, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, although only a small section of the city is located in the latter province.

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 piloted a submarine through a bottomless lake. Upon 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.

The character of "Flinty" is of such importance to the identity of the city, that the local Chamber of Commerce commisioned the minting of a $3.00 coin, which was considered legal tender within the city during the year following its issue.

Marijuana Production

Flin Flon gained international notoriety in 2002 when the Government of Canada awarded a four-year contract to a Saskatoon company for the production of Medicinal Marijuana.

Prairie Plant Systems is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and has used an inactive underground copper/zinc drift owned by the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company to produce approximately 400 kilograms of Medicinal Marijuana annually. The entire operation is several hundred meters underground for security reasons.

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 were obtained from RCMP 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 a more consistent quality.

External links

• Prairie Plant Systems official site (http://www.prairieplant.com)