One hundred and thirty years is an awfully long time.
Think about it.
One hundred and thirty years brings us all the way back from 2025 to 1895, just before the dawn of the 20th century. The Titanic hadn’t yet sunk. Neither World War had ravaged society, to say nothing of the myriad wars that followed them. The Wright Brothers hadn’t yet taken to the skies. The first film version of Frankenstein was yet 15 years away (the Edison Studio production, not the far more iconic 1931 Universal film that put Boris Karloff in the creature’s shoes).
But what was there, all the way back then, was the Fort Frances Times.
Or at least the beginnings of it. It’s hard to grasp that this business and newspaper has been in the Rainy River District in one fashion or another for 130 years. It’s much easier to believe when you stand in our storage room and see the shelves and shelves of old newspapers, carefully tucked away in dark boxes to protect them from the elements and the ravages of time. But 130 years is such a long time. We are only roughly 30 years younger than Canada as a country, yet we’ve been around longer than some of the provinces and territories have!
We tried to celebrate our 125th anniversary, but something came up in 2020 that made that a difficult prospect. So instead, we’re celebrating this year and 130 years of the Fort Frances Times. It might not be a traditional milestone, but it’s better than waiting another 20 years for Volume 150.
So I invite you to celebrate with us this year. Just as we celebrate businesses and organizations in the District who hit milestones of their own, we’ll be putting together a special edition later in the summer to look back at 130 years of the Fort Frances Times.
But I’d also like to hear from you. We’ve been around for such a long time, I can only imagine the hidden gems and secret treasures that might be out there in the district, tucked away in an attic, waiting to be brought back out into the light. If you have any old Times memorabilia, any old clippings or curiosities, anything notable from our first 130 years, I hope you’ll consider sharing a look with us, either by photo or by dropping by the Times office. We’d love to see what’s out there and hear more about what the Times has meant to you over the years.
– Ken Kellar
