In 1854, Benjamin Shantz acquired a sawmill on Mill Creek from George Butchart, built a gristmill nearby and a community people developed around these mills. Stores, hotels and tanneries were built and a village plot for Port Elgin was laid out in 1857. The original economic development of Port Elgin during the 19th century was based on its harbour facilities on Lake Huron making the village a distribution centre for the surrounding agricultural region. The book includes pictures taken in Hepworth which is located at the base of the Bruce Peninsula on Highway 6 east of Sauble Beach. Sauble...

Highways 3 and 6 form a crossroads near the centre of the community of Jarvis which is located near the towns of Simcoe, Cayuga, Port Dover and Hagersville. Jarvis has some excellent examples of brick architecture, with most of them red brick which is different from many towns we have visited where the buildings are predominantly made from yellow brick made from materials rich in lime. Many of the historic homes were built from 1873 and onwards. Architectural styles and terms are described in the appendix. We have often travelled through the town but this time we decided to take a look and...

Southampton Ontario is the subject of Book 33 in the Cruising Ontario series of books of photographs of towns and cities in Ontario. Southampton, on Lake Huron at the mouth of the Saugeen River, is located south of Sauble Beach and north of Port Elgin. It is quiet and peaceful on Southampton's beach, a four-kilometre-long stretch of shore. The wooden Long Dock extends towards Chantry Island with its lighthouse in view offshore. Captain John Spence built a cabin near the mouth of the river in 1849, becoming Southampton's first permanent settler. His wife and family joined him the following...