Lambton Shores is a municipality in

Lambton County Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint Cl ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, that is on the southern shores of

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Straits of Ma ...

History

Lambton Shores was formed in 2001 when the Township of Bosanquet was amalgamated with the town of Forest, and the villages of Arkona, Grand Bend and Thedford.

Climate

Lambton Shores is one of the more southerly municipalities in

, and therefore receives relatively warmer temperatures. It has an average high of in July and in January. As for precipitation, it receives an average of of rain in July and an average of of snow in January.

Communities

The main communities in Lambton Shores are Arkona,

Forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Grand Bend Grand Bend is a community located on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Municipality of Lambton Shores in Lambton County. History Grand Bend is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaro ...

Port Franks Port Franks is a small Southern Ontario community in the municipality of Lambton Shores, Lambton County in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is located along Kings Highway 21 near Pinery Provincial Park, about north of Thedford, Ontario. Archaeo ...

and Thedford. Smaller communities include Cedarview, Glendale Beach, Kettle and Stoney Point, Ipperwash Beach, Lake Valley Grove, Jericho, Jura, Kinnaird, Northville, Ravenswood, Southcott Pines, Springvale, Sunnidale, Walden Place and Walker Woods. The administrative offices of the township are located in Thedford.

Arkona

Arkona is a community located in the municipality of Lambton Shores in

southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake ...

near the Lambton–

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

county line, situated beside the Ausable River, on Former Kings Highway 79 (now Lambton County Road 79), Arkona is roughly halfway between Thedford, and

Watford Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal en ...

Forest

Forest is situated on what was once dense forest. When the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

was built through where the town now sits, the station was named for the dense forest. Hickory Creek, which meanders through the town, provided water for the station in those days when wood and water were essential to the operation of steam locomotives.

Grand Bend

The settlement began in the 1830s when a group of English and

Scottish settlers The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

bought lots from the

Canada Company The Canada Company was a private British land development company that was established to aid in the colonization of a large part of Upper Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter on August 19, 1826, under an act of the British parliament,, ...

, 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.

Thedford

Thedford is a small community in northwestern

Lambton County, Ontario Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint ...

, situated 8 km south of Kings Highway 21, along Lambton CR 79 ( Former Kings Highway 79). The community began in the 1860s when farmer Nelson Southworth, a native of

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...

, agreed to donate land for the construction of a

station, with the condition that he would be able to name it. Southworth chose the name "Thetford", as a way of honouring

Thetford, Vermont Thetford is a town in Orange County, Vermont, United States in the Connecticut River Valley. The population was 2,775 at the 2020 census. Villages within the town include East Thetford, North Thetford, Thetford Hill, Thetford Center, Rices Mi ...

, a community in his home state in the United States. A local clerk's poor hand writing was mistaken for the current spelling, which is how it first appeared on official records. The Thedford Raiders Hockey Team once held the World Record for Longest Continuous Hockey Game, which was also a fundraiser for juvenile diabetes. A plaque at the entrance of the town heralds it as the "Onion Capital of Canada". A

designated place A designated place (DPL) is a type of community or settlement identified by Statistics Canada that does not meet the criteria used to define municipalities or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the Canadian census as the ...

within the municipality of Lambton Shores, Thedford had a population of 822 in the Canada 2006 Census. Thedford telephone numbers start with 519-296.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Lambton Shores had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Media

Lambton Shores has two radio stations: 90.5 myFM Exeter/Grand Bend Local News * CKTI-FM, a

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: ** First Nat ...

station from Kettle Point *VFR895, a race info station from

Grand Bend Motorplex Grand Bend Motorplex is a dedicated multi-use motorsports facility located southeast of Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada. It features IHRA Championship Drag Racing on its 1/4 mile dragstrip as well as two competitive Motorcross tracks and is home of ...

Lambton Shores has two newspapers: *

Lakeshore Advance Lake Shore or Lakeshore may refer to: * the shore of a lake Places * Lakeshore, Ontario, Canada **Lakeshore (provincial electoral district) * Lakeshore, California (disambiguation), the name of several places in the U.S. * Lakeshore, Florida, U ...

, owned by

Sun Media Sun Media Corporation was the owner of several tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of the now defunct Sun News Network. It was a subsidiary of Quebecor Media. On October 6, 2014, Quebecor Media announced the s ...

*Standard Guide Advocate, owned by

Hayter Walden Publications Hayter may refer to: Places * Hayter, Virginia, an unincorporated community * Hayter, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet * Hayter Road, Edmonton, Alberta * Mount Hayter, Oates Land, Antarctica * Hayter Peak, Heard Island, Indian Ocean Other uses * Hayt ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Municipalities in Lambton County 2001 establishments in Ontario