Flin Flon holds a special place in the hearts of those who have lived here – and some who never will.
Repeat tourism represents an important part of the local economy, with a number of visitors making this area an annual summer (or winter) destination for decades.
Peg Baynton of Bakers Narrows Lodge near Flin Flon estimates that of her out-of-town customers who arrive in the summer, at least 30 per cent are repeats.
“Primarily it’s the fishing,” she said when asked how those guests enjoy spending their time.
“They certainly are delighted with the fishing here. They are happy with the accommodations and I would say good customer service.”
Baynton said repeat customers arrive from a variety of provinces and US states, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Colorado and Minnesota.
She said the lodge is welcoming more American guests now that the loonie has fallen from parity, or better, with the US dollar.
Currency rates never kept George Ellis away from Flin Flon. The Columbus, Ohio, resident has been making the 2,700-km drive to this area each summer since 2008.
“The serenity and the fishing are second to none up here,” said Ellis, a retired labourer. “If you want to get away from everything, there’s no better place, to my mind.”
Ellis’s favourite area destinations include Lake Athapap and the many walking trails carved out of the northern wilderness.
One summer night a few years ago, Ellis went to see a movie at the Big Island Drive-in, just to say he had been to a drive-in theatre.
“I always find there’s a lot to do. It’s never boring being here,” said Ellis, who usually spends 10 days in the area each summer before moving on to other communities.
Louie and Glenda Hagel consider Flin Flon their second home. The couple from Camrose, Alberta, first fell in love with the community in the early 1990s when they came to visit Glenda’s sister, a now-former resident.
For the past 15 summers, the Hagels have enjoyed an annual three-week stay in Flin Flon, where they park their hefty camper at the municipal campground.
“We really enjoy the scenery, we enjoy how clean the lakes are and basically how friendly everybody is around here,” said Louie, who works for an agriculture company.
Louie said he and Glenda go fishing as weather permits and take in some of the Trout Festival activities. Other than that, “We just kind of veg out and visit.”
Glenda, a hospital lab technologist, enjoys the remoteness of Flin Flon and the couple’s ability to relax by venturing far away from home.
She said the lakes back home in Camrose are shallow and do not offer fishing or the same rustic experience of those in the Flin Flon area.
“It’s fairly wild,” Glenda said of Flin Flon. “I love going out on the lakes, even if we’re [not] fishing – just going out on the lakes and watching the loons.
“We’ve seen bears, we’ve seen moose. It’s just amazing up here.”
After so many trips to the City Built On Rock, the Hagels have forged several friendships here. They make a point of meeting up with about six other couples each time they’re in Flin Flon.
And that list of friends is sure to grow, as Louie finds the municipal campground to be an inviting temporary home.
“Everybody kind of opens up and welcomes you like there’s no tomorrow,” he said.
Other repeat tourists who declined to be interviewed on the record have been coming to the Flin Flon area annually for as many as 35 years, drawn by the rich outdoor lifestyle.
Ellis has friends back home in Columbus whom he believes would have a blast in Flin Flon, particularly when contrasted with the hustle-and-bustle of life in a city of 800,000-plus people.
The Hagels have already brought some of their friends from Camrose to Flin Flon with them – and those who haven’t made the 900-plus-km trek are certainly curious.
“I take back three or four dozen pictures of the rock here – nobody believes what it’s like up here,” said Louie. “And I find when I get home [they ask], ‘Well how was it? What’d you see?’ It goes on and on.”
Since they can’t be in Flin Flon year-round, the Hagels have routinely insisted on taking a piece – well, pieces – of the community with them in the form of small boulders.
“If you look in the back of our truck, we’ve got quite an assortment of rock,” said Louie, adding that the rocks add décor to the couple’s flower garden and yard.
Louie expects to retire in five years, at which time he and Glenda plan to lengthen their Flin Flon stints from three weeks to four, five or even six weeks each summer.
Of course no community is perfect. One thing
Flin Flon could use to make the Hagels’ stays more enjoyable, Louie said, is a Tim Hortons.
So might the couple drive to The Pas for a double-double, as some permanent Flin Flonners have been known to do?
“We’re not that desperate,” said Louie with a laugh.
“We’ll just bring a can,” added Glenda.
