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Flin Flon: 80 years, 80 questions

The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.

The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.

In celebration of Flin Flon's 80th anniversary, The Reminder is proud to present 80 trivia questions covering the past and present of our community. Some of the questions predate 1933, and that's because Flin Flon predates that year. While it's been 80 years since incorporation, the Flin Flon area has a history that stretches back nearly 100 years. So get out your thinking caps and, please, no Googling. You will find the answers on page 12. **** 1. Which mine did Fred C. Jackson and Sidney J. Reynolds discover? 2. Was David Collins, credited as the true discoverer of the Flin Flon ore body, born in The Pas, New York City or Cold Lake? 3. In which decade did Nazir Ahmad, Bruce Keddie and Gordon Mitchell serve as mayor? 4. A crucial figure in the history of Flin Flon, R.H. _______ served as an agent for the Whitney interests involved in Manitoba exploration. 5. Dr. _____ Johnson retired in 1973 after 38 years of service to Flin Flon. 6. A 1922 report by A.G. McGregor predicted the approximate daily value of metals to be produced from Flin Flon. Was the daily amount $954, $17,554 or $70,354? 7. Born and raised in Flin Flon, Bob ________ was RCMP staff sergeant for the community in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 8. W.A. Green, the long-time superintendent of HBM&S who arrived in this area in 1925, was better known by his nickname. What was it? 9. Was HBM&S incorporated in December of 1924, 1927, 1930 or 1933? 10. Why is Johnny Boychuk's name important to Flin Flon's history? 11. True or false: Flin Flon was originally spelled as one word, Flinflon. 12. Was The Sunless City, the book from which Flin Flon got its name, first published in 1880, 1905 or 1933? 13. In that book, does Josiah Flintabattey Flonatin start out as a prospector, storekeeper or author? 14. Three men _ Ernie Foster, Dr. Ernest Joseph Kelly and Arthur C. Horne _ were the candidates to become Flin Flon's first mayor in 1933. Who won? 15. Did the first _ and certainly most famous _ workers' strike at HBM&S take place in 1934, 1945 or 1956? 16. The late 1980s saw the brief run of a gold mine near Flin Flon known as the ______ Lake mine. 17. Billing itself as 'the voice of the northland in Flin Flon,' CFAR hit the airwaves in November of which year: 1927, 1937 or 1947? 18. For decades, if you needed a ride in Flin Flon, you called ___'s Taxi. 19. What was Blue Monday? 20. The people associated with the development of HBM&S, and what would become Flin Flon, up to Dec. 1, 1927 later found membership in their own club. It was known as Club __. 21. The year 1935 saw the creation of the Flin Flon Bombers. Was the team given its familiar title by town council, the Board of Trade or a 'name the team' contest? 22. When the Bombers first entered the SJHL in 1948, their coach was R.H. Davie, better known by which 'colourful' nickname? 23. Why is Tom Dobson an important name in the history of Flin Flon? 24. Which long-defunct club's first production, Pirates of Penzance, was performed in 1947? 25. In which decade did Howard Abrahamson, F.L. (Bud) Jobin and Ed Yauck serve as mayor? 26. Mel ______, who remained in Flin Flon following his hockey-playing days, helped the Bombers win the 1957 Memorial Cup. 27. Flin Flon-born Dr. Frank Gunston is credited with inventing the first artificial _____. 28. Sportswriters still talk about Flin Flon's Bobby Clarke being selected so late in the 1969 NHL draft. Which health ailment of Clarke's kept so many teams away? 29. Was W.B. Scarth, who has a street named in his honour, the Town of Flin Flon's first police chief, finance chairperson or solicitor? 30. Lord Tweedsmuir is believed to have been the first Governor General of Canada to visit Flin Flon, in 1939. Does he have an avenue, street or boulevard named in his honour? 31. Flin Flon's long-defunct Catholic high school was named after Sir _______ Roche. 32. Was the Flinty statue, designed by American cartoonist Al Capp, erected in 1951, 1962 or 1971? See 'Who' on pg. Continued from pg. 33. Who was the Flin Flon town councillor in the 1930s, '40s and '50s who went on to become one of the community's most colourful mayors in the '50s and '60s? 34. Did the current (and now-defunct) HBM&S smoke stack, built with a budget of roughly $3 million, begin operating in 1968, 1974 or 1978? 35. The smoke stack was fashioned by a Chicago-based outfit still recognized as the world's premier industrial chimney company. Is the company called Industrial Specialties Inc., Hamon Custodis or Trail United? 36. The Flin Flon Community Hall, complete with the R.H. Channing Auditorium, opened in 1958 with Mayor ____ Dembinsky cutting the ribbon. 37. Before arriving in The Pas (and later Flin Flon), had prospector Tom Creighton been employed as a banker, sailor or lawyer? 38. Borrowing a page from Flin Flon's filmgoing history, in the 1980s a video rental store called ___ Video opened on Main Street. 39. Has the Big Island Drive-In Theatre been open since the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s? 40. Other than Tom Creighton and David Collins, name two of the remaining five prospectors associated with the initial Flin Flon find. 41. Was W. R. (Hendy) Henderson an early banker, postmaster or police sergeant? 42. The late Orest Perepeluk ran Flin Flon's Central Meats and Grocery for 53 years. By which name was he better known? 43. The performance theatre at Hapnot Collegiate is named after Dorothy ___. 44. Hapnot Collegiate is the home of the Kopper ____ and ______ sports teams. 45. Which of the following was NOT a Flin Flon school: Main, Ross Lake, Willowvale, Parkway or Hudson? 46. The Board of Trade was the forerunner to which organization, still going strong? 47. For most of the 1990s, Graham _____ was mayor of Flin Flon. 48. The late Del _____ was instrumental in establishing Flinty's Boardwalk in the 1990s. 49. Norm ______ coached the Bombers in the early 1990s, including the 1992-93 season that saw them win the league championship. 50. After a long and memorable run, the Willowpark Curling Club folded last year. Did the club open in 1944, 1950 or 1962? 51. The Trout Festival's now-defunct teen pageant named the winner the Queen ______. 52. Flin Flon's longest-serving current physician is Dr. Peter _______. 53. The late Gordon ______, a long-time local horticulturist, has a flower bed named in his honour. 54. John (Jack) Edward ______ was a mining promoter and part owner of the initial Flin Flon mining property. 55. The South Main and North Main head frames were demolished in 2009 and ____. 56. What type of business did Flin Flon pioneer John Floch operate? 57. What is the name of the magazine produced for employees of HBM&S, now Hudbay? 58. True or false: Flin Flon was just the third community in Canada to sign a municipal policing contract with the RCMP back in 1935? 59. Toronto-based ______ Corp., which later changed its name to HudBay Minerals Inc., purchased HBM&S in 2004. 60. After nearly 80 years in business, ______________'s Confectionary closed its doors in 2008. 61. Opened in 1962, the terminal building of the Flin Flon Municipal Airport was later named in honour of a man crucial to its establishment. What is his name? 62. Who left politics in 2011 as Flin Flon's longest-serving MLA ever? 63. In the past 20 years, two Liberals have broken the NDP grip to become MP of Flin Flon and the rest of northern Manitoba. Name one of them. 64. Milt Young's _____ Shop was once a happening place to be. 65. With which sport will former residents Gib McEachern and Norm Crerar forever be associated? 66. What type of doctor is the long-retired former mayor Ed Yauck? 67. The strike at HBM&S of 19__ was only the second one since the company launched operations. 68. Which department store lasted 53 years on Main Street, opening in 1938, before closing in 1991 and becoming a Northern store? 69. Before becoming mayor, what was George Fontaine's occupation? 70. Which four digits follow 'USW' in the title of the largest union at Hudbay? 71. Trout Lake mine closed in 2012. Other than mining, what was the mine famous for? 72. Of Flin Flon's current crop of city councillors, only one served on council in the 1990s. Who? 73. Mary Crerar spent decades as the mother hen of the Flin Flon Ski Club. By what name was she better known? 74. What do the movies Mystery, Alaska and Net Worth have in common? 75. What was the name of Flin Flon's first newspaper, launched in 1931? 76. After practising law in Flin Flon beginning in 1931, C.C. ______ was appointed to the King's Counsel in 1937. In 1945 he was named a police magistrate and juvenile-court judge, remaining until 1976. 77. Jim and Lil ______ founded the landmark Gateway Drive-In before selling it to the Haggarty family. 78. Dr. Suresh ____ served Flin Flon patients for 34 years before retiring in 2009. 79. Gunnar ________ was a town (and then city) councillor from 1956 to 1980. 80. Near which Saskatchewan town, still going strong today, did prospectors find a copy of The Sunless City?

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