[1] It was formed on January 1, 1999, through the merger of the Township of Cosby, Mason and Martland and surrounding unincorporated portions of the Unorganized South Sudbury District.

The municipality comprises the communities of Alban, Bigwood, Chartrand Corner, Delamere, Dokis First Nation, French River Station, Happy Landing, Jamot, Monetville, Noëlville, North Monetville, Ouellette, Rutter, Sucker Creek Landing and Wolseley Bay.

On August 27, 2020, the West Nipissing Historical Society held an unveiling ceremony for the erection of a stone cairn monument in recognition of Cyrille Monette as the founder of Monetville and the first pioneer to the area.

The monument bears two plaques, one in English, one in French, briefly describing M. Monette's contributions to the development of the area.

Cyrille Monette's original and real name was apparently 'Alexandre Boisvert', a name which he would have relinquished between 1863 and 1871 (Le lien entre Louis Riel et le Nord de l'Ontario) after participating in the Red River uprising with Louis Riel.

Elder Richard Meilleur of the Métis Nipissing Families shared a tobacco ceremony to honour the ancestors.

The Monette Monument is located at 5690 Highway 64 in Monetville (Municipality of French River) Facebook: West Nipissing Historical Society Noëlville, originally known as Cosby, was founded in 1905 with the arrival of settlers in the region.

To pay homage to Noël Desmarais, the village's first merchant and the first businessman of the region, the town of Cosby became Noëlville in 1911.

The Community of Christ cemetery, 339 East Road,[5] has a Canadian World War II hero buried there.

French River utilizes the mail-in balloting system for municipal elections rather than polling stations.