Flin Flon was founded in the late 1920s by mining firms eager to exploit the large copper and zinc supplies in the region. The town grew considerably during the 1930s as farmers, left impoverished by the Great Depression abandoned their famrs and came to work at the mines. The city has continued to be a mining center, with several recent mines adding to its industry. With a scenic setting and a number of nearby lakes, Flin Flon has also become a moderately popular tourist destination.
The town's name is taken from the lead character in a paperback novel, "The Sunless City". A prospector named Tom Creighton found the book in the wilderness. The story is about a man named Josiah Flintabbity Flonitan who dived in a bottomless lake in a submarine. Passing through a hole lined with gold, he found a strange underground world.
When Tom Creighton discovered a rich vein of almost pure copper, he thought of the book and called it Flin Flon's mine, mercifully shortening the name.