Grand Bend, Ontario
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| Grand Bend, Ontario | |
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  Grand Bend, Ontario
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| Coordinates: 43°19′N 81°45′W / 43.317°N 81.75°W | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Province |  Ontario |
| County | Lambton |
| Municipality | Lambton Shores |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| - Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| Website | www.grandbendtourism.com |
Grand Bend, often referred to as simply "The Bend" or "GB," is a community located on the shores of Lake Huron and a part of the municipality of Lambton Shores in the county of Lambton.
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.
The settlement began in the 1830’s 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 specified ethnic and religious minorities. The case was finally heard by the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled that any such restrictive covenant was unconstitutional.[2]
Today, Grand Bend's year-round population of 2,000 people swells to about 50,000 in the summer months on holiday weekends. Grand Bend is known both for being part of hundreds of miles of open beach on the "West Coast of Ontario" and as an active night life hotspot. Fine dining, roadhouse fare, and burger and fries are all available on the two main roads of Grand Bend, Highway 81 (Main Street) and Highway 21 (Ontario Street). Several motels and Bed and Breakfasts provide ample accommodations for the many crowds that flood into Grand Bend in the summer season. The sandy beaches are crowded on weekends and the water is clean and the sand stretches out into the water gently sloping manner which provides a comfortable and safe swimming experience. When the winds are out of the northwest you know that the waves are going to grow in size and waveboarders take to the lake.
The Pinery Provincial Park and the Lambton Heritage Museum are located seven kilometres south of Grand Bend.
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; London; Windsor; Detroit; and locations as far as New York, Florida, Texas, and the American west coast.
[edit] See also
- Ausable River (Ontario)
- Bosanquet, Ontario
- Forest, Lambton County, Ontario
- Lambton County, Ontario
- Lambton Shores, Ontario
- Pinery Provincial Park
- Port Franks, Ontario
[edit] References
- ^ Rayburn, Alan (1997), Place Names of Ontario (University of Toronto Press), Toronto-Buffalo-London, ISBN 0-8020-7207-0), pp.140-141
- ^ 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
[edit] External links
- Grand Bend Tourism and Chamber of Commerce (Official Tourism Site)
- The Municipality of Lambton Shores
- www.grandbend.com
- Visit Grand Bend
- Grand Bend Yacht Club
- Lambton Kent Board of Education Website
- Pinery Provincial Park
- Lambton Heritage Museum
- Grand Bend Strip A Community Newspaper and Entertainment Guide
- The Grand Bend Radio Station myfm 90.5
