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.
Look for the familiar image of Flintabbatey Flonatin to pop up on even more items. The Chamber of Commerce yesterday honoured requests from two local businesses to use the fictitious professor's likeness on various souvenirs, such as key chains, charms and magnets. The written requests came from uptown businesses Northern Rainbow's End and the Flin Flon Indian-Metis Friendship Centre, which operates a craft outlet. Both businesses agreed not to in any way alter the image of the bespectacled prospector. The Chamber has the rights to the Flinty character. At their meeting yesterday at the Friendship Centre, the Chamber members discussed the possibility of reinstating a royalty fee for the commercial use of Flinty's image. However, President Doug O'Brien said he didn't feel that was suitable at this time, adding that he sees such Flinty souvenirs as a good way to promote the community. This is the latest feather in Flinty's cap in what has been a busy couple of years for the oddly-named prospector. A Flinty costume has been spotted at community events since its arrival last January, and Mr. Flonatin also appears on the popular $3 coins issued last November. See 'Campers' P.# Con't from P.# Before we know it, Flinty will again be welcoming campers to town from high atop his perch at the Flin Flon Municipal Campground and Tourist Bureau. Flin Flon, of course, got its unusual, and sometimes mocked, moniker from the character of Flintabbatey Flonatin in J. E. Preston Muddock's book The Sunless City. In the story, Flonatin discovers all sorts of precious metal treasures during an underwater trip in his diminutive submarine. A group of prospectors are said to have found a copy of The Sunless City at their camp site near La Ronge. When they came across the Flin Flon ore body, they could see that the mineralization went below the water. According to legend, one of the prospectors quipped that "This must be old Flinty's glory hole." The men eventually dubbed their camp site at the new ore body the "Flin Flon Camp." The town gradually grew from the camp.
