The Town of Timmins was founded by Noah Timmins in 1912 after the Hollinger Gold Mine was discovered. By 1912 the new town had already grown larger than the original mining camps to the east on Porcupine Lake.

Timmins is evolving into a regional governmental, transportation, industrial, commercial and recreational centre for much of Northeastern Ontario

Timmins' economy is based on a boom-and-bust business cycle. The city's economic state is controlled by its major industry, mining. When gold and base-metal prices are high the city's economy explodes, however, when those prices drop the local market historically dips with it.

Some of the main tourist attractions within the city include: the Shania Twain Centre, Timmins Underground Gold Mine Tour, The Timmins Museum and National Exhibition Centre, wilderness tours, x-country skiing and snowmobiling, Snowmobiling impacts the Timmins economy as tourists from all over North America travel north to explore area trails.

Timmins is also a staging point for many of the wilderness outfitters in the district who offer a number of different northern wilderness experiences, such as hunting and fishing excursions. There's a boat launch located just south of the Mattagami River bridge off Algonquin Blvd which provides both summer and winter access to that main water course.

Kettle Lakes Provincial Park, situated just east of the city centre is dotted with 22 deep, spring-fed kettle lakes which are reachable by trails and roads. Some of the parks activities in summer include swimming, camping (day and overnight), paddling and fishing. In the winter the park offers cross-country skiing and snowshoe trails.

The city's slogan is "The City with a Heart of Gold".
Wikipedia