[1] Launched in 1879 by editor William Loe Smith, it is the oldest still-extant newspaper in the Northern Ontario region.
[2] The paper is nationally most noted for winning the Michener Award for public service journalism in 1982, for its investigation into the high local suicide rate.
[3] The investigation led to the launch of a community-operated suicide prevention hotline.
[5] In 2020, Rick McCutcheon was inducted into the Ontario Community Newspapers Association's Hall of Fame.
[6] In 2001, the paper acquired the formerly competing Manitoulin West Recorder in Gore Bay.