We can hardly wait to get to our cottages and cabins, though people on mainland with roads to their cabins have had a significant jump on “islanders.” Last Wednesday evening, Marnie and I launched our boat and headed to our cabin on the south arm of Rainy Lake. It has […]
Jim Cumming – From the Publisher Emeritus’ Pen
Jim is the former publisher of the Fort Frances Times Ltd. He writes a weekly column and can be contacted at jcumming@fortfrances.com
The Town of Fort Frances did not exist when Sieur de la Verendrye, in 1731, set up a fort at the head of the Rainy River. Fort Frances did not exist when Fort Lac La Pluie was established by the North West Company as a fur-trading post—and even when it […]
I enjoy cooking and like to think that I’m fairly versatile when it comes to preparing food. And Mother’s Day was the successful beginning of my love of cooking. I can’t remember when I first began cooking, but it probably started when my brother and I were old enough to […]
After this past weekend, I now can put my snow blower into the back of the garage and move my lawn mower forward. By this time last year, my lawn already had two clippings. The tulips were pushing themselves out of the ground and my day lilies had bright green […]
“That will be $22,” the Homeland Security border guard at the U.S. Customs said to the family of four headed to the movie theatre in International Falls. It has not happened yet, but the United States is exploring the option of collecting a user fee to enter the country by […]
April is Cancer Awareness Month. The Beta Sigma Phi sorority recently sold daffodils here for the last time. Shortly, daffodil pins will go on sale throughout the community for those to make donations to the Canadian Cancer Society. The money is well used assisting in research and helping cancer patients. […]
Last year, I launched my boat on April 13. I was able to get to my cabin on Rainy Lake on April 16 and we had the water running April 21. It was the earliest we had ever reached and opened our cabin since starting records in 1968. Our hot […]
I have a pink tie and a pink dress shirt—and I’ll be wearing both of them on April 10. It is “Pink Day,” the international day against bullying, discrimination, homophobia, and transphobia in schools and communities across our country. It began as a simple gesture at Central Kings High School […]
I attended an interesting meeting last Wednesday, during which one of the people on hand made a very appropriate comment. “The council of Fort Frances is not going to save the town,” he said. “The people of the community will save the town!” And when the words had settled at […]
Carl Schubring, a former editor of the Fort Frances Times, jokingly told me the following story. When the community had a sole lawyer, the poor lawyer could barely put food on the table for his family. When a second lawyer appeared on the scene, together they comfortably could feed their […]
A report in the Falls Journal noted that Borderland already had received 14 more inches of snow this year than is normal—and that was without Saturday’s snowfall. And we have a higher amount of snow still sitting on the ground than we normally do. As you read this, the official […]
Inside retail businesses, the inventory is changing. There’s still snow on the ground but swimsuits and colorful skirts, tops, and shorts are finding their way into store windows. In hardware stores, barbecues are popping up right in front of you as you walk through the doors, as are seed stands. […]
