History
This was the first European settlement west of Lake Superior; it was established by French Canadian Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye, first commander of the western district. In 1731 he built Fort St. Pierre near this spot as support for the fur trade with native peoples. In 1732 his expedition built Fort St. Charles on Magnuson Island on the west side of Lake of the Woods. After some time, Fort St. Pierre fell out of use.
In 1817, following the War of 1812 and redefinition of borders between Canada and the United States, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) built a fort here. Officials named the subsequent settlement after Lady Frances Simpson, wife of then Hudson's Bay Company Governor George Simpson, who visited the fort many times.
Incorporated in 1903, the town held a big centennial celebration in 2003.
The main employer is a pulp and paper mill established in the early 1900s. It has had numerous owners over the years, notably Edward Wellington Backus. Now owned by Resolute Forest Products, the mill employs about 700 persons.
On June 25, 1946, the town was struck by a tornado which caused major damage. This tornado struck a week after the deadly Windsor tornado.
Read more about this topic: Fort Frances
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“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)