Grand Bend
Grand Bend, Ontario | |
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A summer evening on the Grand Bend beach | |
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Coordinates: 43°19′N 81°45′W / 43.317°N 81.750°WCoordinates: 43°19′N 81°45′W / 43.317°N 81.750°W | |
Country | Canada |
Province | Ontario |
County | Lambton |
Municipality | Lambton Shores |
Area | |
• Land | 4.74 km2 (1.83 sq mi) |
Population (2011) | |
• Total | 2,102 |
• Density | 443.8/km2 (1,149/sq mi) |
Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
• Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
Website | www.grandbendtourism.com |
Grand Bend is a Canadian community located on the shores of Lake Huron in Southern Ontario.
Contents |
History[edit]
The settlement began in the 1830s when a group of English and Scottish settlers bought lots from the Canada Company, a land development firm. One of the original settlers, Benjamin Brewster gave his name to the village after he and his business partner David Smart secured rights to dam the Ausable River and started a sawmill in 1832. The villagers were mainly the families of the millhands and fisherman. Their homesteads were situated on the south side of the present village.
For twenty years Brewster existed as an isolated lumbering community. Until the opening of the highway to Goderich in 1850, both people and provisions had to travel by water. Once road connections were complete, the village was no longer solely dependent on the forests for its livelihood and opportunities for new businesses emerged.
Typical of many pioneer communities, the village assumed many different names throughout its history—Brewster's Mills, Websterville and Sommerville are all recorded. Early French Canadian settlers in the area referred to the present location of the village as "Aux Croches", 'at the bends'.[1] Grand Bend survived as a name, perhaps because it was the most appropriate—the tight hairpin turn in the original Ausable River where mills were first established.
Improved roads and the arrival of the automobile near the turn of the century had the greatest influence on the growth of Grand Bend. Businesses were established to serve visitors and travelers along the highway and with the beach, "The Bend" became a summer destination. In the 1940s, however, Grand Bend became the centre of a major controversy in the landmark court case of Bernard Wolfe and Annie Maude Noble versus the homeowners of Beach O'Pines. Wolfe, a London, Ontario merchant, faced court-challenges when he purchased property at Beach O'Pines in contravention of a restrictive covenant that prohibited the ownership of lots or cottages by persons of "Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic, Negro or coloured race or blood". The case was finally heard by the Supreme Court of Canada[2] which ruled that any such restrictive covenant was unconstitutional.[3]
Present day[edit]
Grand Bend is home to a variety of stores and eateries. The main strip is the centre of activity in the town, with shopping during the day and night life venues during the evening drawing crowds. The atmosphere of Grand Bend has given the town a reputation of being Florida north. As well as Main Street, Grand Bend acts as a regional cultural centre, boasting art galleries in the town and the Huron Country Playhouse on the outskirts.
Today, Grand Bend's year-round population of 2,000 people swells to about 50,000 in the summer months on holiday weekends. The demographic population of Grand Bend is quite diverse. Families owning vacation homes in the adjacent communities of Oakwood Park, Southcott Pines and Beach O' Pines, are from Ontario and Michigan, including: Toronto; Sarnia; London; Windsor; Detroit; and locations as far as New York, Florida, Texas, and the American west coast.
The Pinery Provincial Park and the Lambton Heritage Museum are located seven kilometres south of Grand Bend.
Grand Bend Motorplex has a dragstrip that hosts an International Hot Rod Association race and the IHRA Canadian Nationals, Canada's longest running and largest drag race.
See also[edit]
- Bosanquet, Ontario
- Forest, Lambton County, Ontario
- Lambton County
- Lambton Shores, Ontario
- Port Franks, Ontario
References[edit]
- ^ Rayburn, Alan (1997), Place Names of Ontario (University of Toronto Press), Toronto-Buffalo-London, ISBN 0-8020-7207-0), pp.140-141
- ^ Noble v. Alley 1950 CANLII 13, [1951] S.C.R. 64, [1951] 1 D.L.R. 321 (20 November 1950), Supreme Court (Canada)
- ^ Ian Bushnell. The Captive Court: A Study of the Supreme Court of Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1992), 302; James W. St. G. Walker"Race," rights and the law in the Supreme Court of Canada (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997), 182-245; Globe and Mail 13 June 1949, 5
External links[edit]
- Grand Bend Tourism and Chamber of Commerce (Official Tourism Site)
- The Municipality of Lambton Shores
- www.grandbend.com
- Grand Bend Yacht Club
- Lambton Kent Board of Education Website
- Pinery Provincial Park
- Lambton Heritage Museum
- Grand Bend Art Centre
- Grand Bend Strip A Community Newspaper and Entertainment Guide
- Grand Bend's and the Huron Shoreline's Radio Station 104.9 THE BEACH