Mooretown is a community in the Township of St. Clair, 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 ...

, located on the east bank of the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, forming part ...

. It was first established as Sutherland's Landing. Mooretown gained in prosperity during the 19th century as a port of call for sail born vessels requiring assistance to pass "The Rapids" where

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

s driven by cord wood stacked on Mooretown's piers could be towed up river into

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 ...

. The original Scottish settlers established a church at Sutherland's Landing (now between Mooretown and Courtright) which was then moved to Mooretown in the 1860s when the oak logs of the original structure rotted out. The 1860s structure was struck by

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

in 1918 having been built of local timber with a copper clad steeple known to mariners as a navigation point. The 1919 replacement structure is now on the Moore Museum's grounds having been preserved by artist Christine Anne Wingfield-Brandon. The structure retains the steeple bell from the original Sutherland's Landing Church. Mooretown served as a regional center for

salt mining Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite Formation (geology), formations. History Before the advent of the moder ...

and

oil refining An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

before these industries move to neighboring communities. In the 19th century Mooretown was a regional seat with a considerable population with hotels and a municipal seat, it exists today as a quiet and distinctive community.

References

Communities in Lambton County {{Ontario-geo-stub