The board administers services in the geographic townships of Blair, East Mills and Wilson and parts of the geographic townships of Hardy, McConkey and Pringle, including the communities of Arnstein, Bear Valley, Ess Narrows Landing, Fleming's Landing, Golden Valley, Loring, Port Loring and Spring Creek.
Currently, the community is known for its tourism industry, which is focused primarily on camping, deer hunting, fishing and snowmobiling.
Arnstein was named in 1887 by postmaster William Brunne after a village in Bavaria, Germany, 20 km north of Würzburg.
He represented the province of Ontario in 1884 before the British Privy Council on the northwestern boundary dispute with Manitoba.
It was renamed in 1884 by William Edward O'Brien (1831–1914), Conservative member for Muskoka in the House of Commons, 1882–96, for his wife, Elizabeth (Loring) Harris, whom he had married in 1864.