Mainit is one of the 27 municipalities that compose the Province of Surigao del Norte, Republic of the Philippines. It is located in the southwestern part of the province, 44 kilometers away from the City of Surigao. It has a total land area of 15,353.8 hectares inhabited by 23,417 population (NSO, 2000). The entire municipality is composed of 21 barangays, five of which are considered as urban barangays and the rest are rural barangays. Up to the present, the history of Mainit is still hardly reconstructed. Except for a few records of the catholic church that did missionary works in Mainit and some scanty references of anthropological studies conducted on the people of the Philippines by foreign authors, few have been said about the history of Mainit.

Oral traditions and unpublished studies however, of Mainitnons seeking for their cultural roots pointed out that as early as 1800's, Mainit was already an established settlement with some history of resistance to both "pirates" and Spanish Conquestadores. It has been claimed that the Mamanwas, the Indigenous People of Mainit were the first settlers in Mainit. As waves of migration from Luzon and Visayas affected theri stability, the Mamanwas were gradually pushed to the hinterlands.

The political history of the Mainit, however, started in 1904 when the Americans created Mainit as a barrio of Placer, Surigao. It became important in the history of the region when in 1906, it was claimed by the Agusan as part of its territory and declared it a separate municipality. The conflict of territorial boundaries was settled six months later and Mainit was returned to Placer.

In 1931, by virtue of E.O. 290 dated December 27,1930, Mainit was created into a Municipality with the late Antonio Mozar as its first mayor. From then on, Mainit, as a distinct political unit drifted along with the currents of Philippine History. It went on with the tides of economic, political and cultural change that beset the Philippine nation.

Two barrios of Mainit eventually became separate municipalities; i.e., Tubod in 1958 and Alegria in 1968. At present, Mainit is basically an agricultural community. Rice and coconuts are the main crops produced although it also boasts of freshwater products from its main body of water, the Lake Mainit. Mainit can be reached by sea via Surigao City and by air via Butuan City and is connected to the rest of the world through Smart Telephone Co.