Point Clark is a lakefront cottage community on

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

, in the municipality of

Huron-Kinloss Huron-Kinloss is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within Bruce County. The township had a population of 7,069 in the Canada 2016 Census. Huron-Kinloss is located in Western Ontario, on Lake Huron. It is relatively remote, ...

, Ontario,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is approximately 15 kilometres south of Kincardine and 40 kilometres north of Goderich. Main streets include Huron Road and Lake Range Road. Point Clark is served by Highway 21 (Ontario). It is a cottage town, and has a rare Imperial Tower style lighthouse. There is a sandy

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

and a small

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

with a boat ramp. There are two

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s that run into Lake Huron around Point Clark: Clark Creek and Pine River. There is a separate harbour in the mouth of the Pine River.

Amberley Amberley may refer to: Places Australia *Amberley, Queensland, near Ipswich, Australia *RAAF Base Amberley, a Royal Australian Air Force military airbase United Kingdom * Amberley, Gloucestershire, England * Amberley, Herefordshire, England ...

is just outside and to the south of Point Clark and

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

is to the south-east of Point Clark. This lighthouse of one of six Imperial Towers built in the 1850s on

and

Georgian Bay The Georgian Bay () is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is t ...

. They were built at a time when commercial shipping traffic was increasing on the Great Lakes between Canada and the U.S. because of new trade agreements and the opening of the

Sault Ste. Marie Canal The Sault Ste. Marie Canal is a National Historic Site in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is part of the national park system, managed by Parks Canada. It includes a lock to bypass the rapids on the St. Marys River. The first canal near the si ...

locks in 1855. The Bruce Peninsula was also open to settlement by 1850, making the lighthouses timely. All were made of cut limestone and granite, not of brick, metal, wood or concrete as most others were on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

. The

Point Clark Lighthouse A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

was formally registered as one of the

National Historic Sites of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

on 25 May 1966. It is the only lighthouse on the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay to receive that highest level of merit. The light keeper's house is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building, a place of historic interest (14 July 1994). Both can be toured by the public.

History

In 1850, Point Clark was originally called The Point and the Post Office was called Pine River. Later, the area was known as Pine Point as a lantern was hung from a

pine tree A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

to warn sailors of the shoal off the point, prior to the building of the

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

. After settlers moved in from Clark Township, Huron County, the area was known as "Clark's Point". Later, the town received the name it bears today—Point Clark.' At the end of 1853, six municipalities were formed in the new township of Huron. Capt. Henry C. Gamble, an Irish man arrived in 1856 to visit to his brother, J. W. Gamble. He decided to remain and to develop the area into a business centre. He bought land near the mouth of the river and built a saw and grist mill. At the time, the neighbourhood was called "The Point." Capt. Gamble did not succeed with his plan to develop the area and returned to Ireland. The government arranged for the building of the

between 1855 and 1859, during the building of the Imperial Towers; many referred to it as the Pine Point light. The tower and keeper's home were extensively restored between 2011 and 2014 and reopened to the public in 2015. The museum in the keeper's home and an outbuilding provides a glimpse into the life of light keepers of the past. Since the lighthouse is on the mainland (not on an island) it can easily reached by vehicle. The entire facility including the tower, operated by the Township of Huron-Kinloss, can be toured from mid June to

Labour Day Labour Day is an annual day of celebration of the labour movement and its labor rights, achievements. It has its origins in the trade union, labour union movement, specifically the Eight-hour day movement, eight-hour day movement, which advoca ...

for a fee.

References

External links

Point Clark Official Government
{{authority control Populated places on Lake Huron in Canada Communities in Bruce County