Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FLIN FLON
Flin Flon is Canada's most whimsically named municipality and greets
visitors with a jumble of streets climbing the rocky hills. Located most-
ly in Manitoba, with a smaller part spilling over into Saskatchewan, Flin
Flon is the most important mining centre in this part of the country,
and has grown to become the province's sixth-largest city.
Flin Flon was named by a group of gold prospectors in 1915 who
found a copy of a mass-market science fi ction paperback named
The
Sunless City
during a northern Manitoba portage. Later, on a lake-
shore near here, they staked a mining claim and named it for the
book's main character, Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, or
Flinty
to locals.
Thus, the green 7.5m-tall Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin statue presides
over the city's entrance. It was designed for the city by the renowned
American cartoonist Al Capp.
town's most interesting natural attrac-
tion is the crescent-shaped lake (fi t-
tingly named Crescent Lake), a cutoff
bow of the Assiniboine River that
nearly encircles the entire downtown.
Island Park
sits within that crescent,
providing beautiful tree-shaded picnic
spots by the water.
Campgrounds and a sandy beach for
swimming make this large park popular
in the summer.
WESTERN MANITOBA
Riding Mountain National
Park
Spruce Woods Provincial
Park
Riding Mountain National Park rises
majestically from the plains with aspen-
covered slopes that are habitats for
wild animals such as elk, moose, deer,
wolves and lynx. The largest black bear
ever seen in North America was killed
here by a poacher in 1992, and bison
are contained within a large bison en-
closure near Lake Audy.
The “Spirit Sands,” a desert landscape of
immense sand dunes in Spruce Woods
Provincial Park, never fails to take vis-
itors by surprise. Self-guided trails take
hikers through the dunes and the sur-
rounding spruce forests and prairie, and
to the “Devil's Punch Bowl,” an unusual
pond created by underground streams.
4
Riding Mountain National Park.
© Parks Canada / Barrett & Mackay
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