Primarily dependent on farming and logging, it is also a popular location for tourism, swelling its summer population up to 500 persons.

The Fort William Trading Post (now Hotel Pontiac), including the factor's house and church, is a historical site and heritage village with a popular beach in the summer.

Because the fur trade couldn't cover the post's expenses, a farm was added in the 1830s in order to sell provisions to lumber companies for their camps.

It was a long-established custom for Indians to come to Lac des Allumettes to meet with Jesuits from Montreal and solemnize baptisms and marriages.

Due to freight costs, competition, and the advent of steam transportation, the HBC sold Fort William in 1869 for $3000 and moved its operations to Pembroke, Ontario.

[11] In the 1830s, Irish people, escaping famine and religious persecution, began to settle in the area and in 1848, a post office was opened in Fort William.

Sheenboro forms part of the federal electoral district of Pontiac and has been represented by Sophie Chatel of the Liberal Party since 2021.

Provincially, Sheenboro is part of the Pontiac electoral district and is represented by André Fortin of the Quebec Liberal Party since 2014.