Like a great mosaic, the historical picture of Flin Flon and area is made up of countless tiny pieces.
This heritage is preserved by hundreds of aging and in some cases fragile pictures and documents.
Some of these are located in the Flin Flon Archives and other formal collections, but there is also a great deal of our history in private collections and photo albums that have followed former Flin Flonners to all corners of the world.
And so the Flin Flon Heritage Project was created to provide online access to this material and to create a sort of backup system in case this history becomes lost.
Now in its third year, FFHP consists of a website, a Facebook page and a digital archive. No actual artifacts, pictures or documents are collected. The only tangible part of the project is the growing collection of CDs that contain a digital archive and its index.
Historical record
From coast to coast in Canada and from as far away as Georgia and California, people with connections to Flin Flon are contributing to the historical record of life in a wonderful town.
Seed money to get FFHP off the ground was contributed by myself, Doug Evans, along with Richard Lyons and Davilyn Dembinski-Eyolfson.
The project has received other donations since that time, and the $10 support/membership subscriptions coming from Flin Flonners everywhere has kept us solvent.
All of our expenditures to date have been for website maintenance, as our volunteers have supplied their own equipment.
The Flin Flon Archives has a program conducted by Don Peake to scan its holdings. In an early meeting between the two groups, it was agreed that the FFHP would post the archives’ collection to its website, thus providing an index available over the Internet. As far as we know, this is a unique undertaking for a community like Flin Flon.
Expansion
The FFHP seems to generate its own expansion. A long series of pictures of Phantom Lake over the years is leading to the writing of a history to accompany that collection.
The FFHP is also moving to include audio interviews with oldtimers. Many of these interviews are irreplaceable gems of history.
Featuring the work of the many talented artists and craftspeople from Flin Flon has opened a whole new field. Flin Flon has boasted many artists in all disciplines over the years. Finding examples of their work and obtaining digital copies that can be shared is satisfying work.
One of the most challenging aspects of the project has been addressing the fact that a great deal of the history of our town is in private collections scattered all over the country.
The fact that the project does not collect anything but digital copies has helped since no one has to give up their treasured items.
Many collections are in shoeboxes under the bed, and the project has worked hard to extend in-home scanning services so these collections can be preserved in digital format without the owner losing control of them.
People with photos or documents related to any aspect of life in Flin Flon can contact us at FlinFlonHP@gmail. com and we will arrange for scanning for them.
Flin Flon is unique and the preservation of its heritage is important. There are now about 40 people working on the FFHP. If you are interested in joining, contact us at the above email address.
Doug Evans is co-founder of the Flin Flon Heritage Project.
Achievements
Among the achievements of the Flin Flon Heritage Project thus far:
• 42 Hapnot Collegiate yearbooks have been scanned, processed and posted online. Material from the Sir Maurice Roche high school has been received and more is being sought.
• 165 issues of Northern Lights magazine have been scanned, processed, and added.
• A working group has been formed to collect the history of the Flin Flon Glee Club. Around 200 pictures have been restored and more are in the works. Progress is being made on digitizing old reel-to-reel tapes. Many original programs have been found and most posted to the website.
• Books of all kinds related to Flin Flon have been scanned, processed and added.
• Programs such as those for the Trout Festival, Flin Flon Figure Skating Club, Flin Flon Bonspiel and Flin Flon Music Festival are being added as found.
• Three years of the long-defunct Flin Flon Daily Miner newspaper have been scanned, restored and added.
• Articles from local and national publications concerning this region have been posted for the historical record.
• A procedure has been set up to receive and safely store digital copies of family archives that are particularly vulnerable to loss as time goes by. This not only ensures the survival of the album but makes it available to all family members, no matter where they are located.
• 5,600 images of the life of the community have been added, including much of the Flin Flon Archives. All these images have been entered with descriptions, references to the originating collections, and provided with identifying numbers.
• There are many other PDF files containing about 500 pictures. This type of file allows us to group related pictures together.
• 3,500 images have been entered into a digital archive and attached to a searchable index. These have been burned onto CDs, copies of which can be made for schools and researchers. As the work of attribution and definition is completed on the remaining collection it will be added to the collection of CDs.
• Flin Flon city council has decided to scan its collection of meeting minutes, which date back to 1933, and has offered a copy of this work to the project.
