Lynn Lake was founded in 1950, when a deposit of nickel ore was discovered. The nickel mine was developed, and soon after, gold was also discovered. Most of Lynn Lake's 208 houses and commercial buildings were moved from Sherridon, over cat train trails. The houses and commercial buildings were moved by digging out the foundation, loading them on the tricycle winter freighting sleigh pulled by Linn Tractors and caterpillar crawlers. The buildings once loaded were the last sleigh on the cat trains which were usually 4–5 sleighs long.