Port Stanley is a community in the Municipality of

Central Elgin Central Elgin is a municipality located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada in Elgin County on Lake Erie. It is part of the London census metropolitan area. History Central Elgin was formed in 1998 through the amalgamation of the Township of Yarmo ...

Elgin County Elgin County ( ) is a county composed of seven municipalities in Ontario, Canada with a 2021 population of 51,912. Its population centres are Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is located on the north shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

at the mouth of Kettle Creek. In 2016, it had a population of 2,148.

History

The site of Port Stanley was part of an important early route from

to other inland waterways for a succession of explorers and travellers of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was an important landing point and camping spot. Adrien Jolliet, brother of

Louis Jolliet Louis Jolliet (; September 21, 1645after May 1700) was a French-Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. In 1673, Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore ...

, landed at this location in 1669 during the first exploration of 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 ...

by Europeans. Other notable visitors included

François Dollier de Casson François Dollier de Casson (1636 – 27 September 1701) was born in Vitré, France, into a wealthy bourgeois and military family. He began his adult life in the army which he left after three years to continue his studies and become a priest. A ...

and

René de Bréhant de Galinée René Bréhant de Galinée was a member of the Society of Saint-Sulpice (Sulpician Order) at Montreal and an explorer and missionary to the Native Americans. In 1670, he and François Dollier de Casson were the first Europeans to make a recorde ...

(1670), Jean-Baptiste Céloron de Blainville (1749) and

Sir William Johnson Major-General Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet ( – 11 July 1774), was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Ireland known for his military and governance work in British colonial America. As a young man, Johnson moved to t ...

(1761). In commemoration of this role, a site bounded by Bridge, Main and Colbourne Streets was designated a

National Historic Site 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 ...

in 1923, and was marked with a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

. Lieutenant-Colonel John Bostwick received the first land grant, and settled in what is now Port Stanley in 1804. Around 1824, it was renamed Port Stanley after

Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served three times as Prime ...

, who had visited nearby

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community (Wales), community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which d ...

. Lord Stanley later became

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...

and the father of

Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908), known as Hon. Frederick Stanley until 1886 and Lord Stanley of Preston between 1886–1893, was a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician in the Un ...

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

enthusiast and donor of the first

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

in 1893.

Economy

Port Stanley has a large sheltered harbour that was operated by

Transport Canada Transport Canada () is the Ministry (government department), department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, Policy, policies and Public services, services of road, rail, marine and air Transport in Canada, tra ...

, but has been divested to the Municipality of Central Elgin. Historically, these facilities supported trade in coal and wood between Southwestern Ontario and the United States. Today, most of these facilities are dormant, but a commercial freshwater fishery operates from the harbour.

Attractions

Attractions include a large sandy beach, King George VI Lift Bridge (a lifting bridge across Kettle Creek opened in May 1939), marinas, restaurants, hotels, shops, the Port Stanley Festival Theatre in the former town hall building on Bridge Street, and the

Port Stanley Terminal Rail The Port Stanley Terminal Rail (PSTR) is a heritage railway that passes over the historic tracks of The London and Port Stanley Railway (L&PS) between Port Stanley and St. Thomas, Ontario. The tourist trains began operating in 1983, after volun ...

, which operates a tourist train between

St. Thomas, Ontario St. Thomas is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It gained its city charter on March 4, 1881. The city is also the seat for Elgin County, although it is independent of the county. At the time of the 2021 Census, the population of the city w ...

and Port Stanley using a portion of the former L&PS rail line, the

London and Port Stanley Railway The London and Port Stanley Railway (L&PS or L&PSR) was a Canadian railway located in southwestern Ontario. It linked the city of London, Ontario, London with Port Stanley, Ontario, Port Stanley on the northern shore of Lake Erie, a distance of a ...

. In 1926, the L&PS Pavilion opened. It was later renamed the Stork Club (not to be confused with the famous New York establishment), and had a dance floor, the largest dance floor in the London-Port Stanley area; the club was famous for swing dance and big band and attracted several big names to play there. It was closed by health authorities in 1973 because it could not earn the revenue to keep the building up. H.J. McManus, a London businessman, bought it and his son, Joe Jr., led the renovations, reopening in 1974 with the Harry James Orchestra performing before a sellout crowd. The last event was a performance by Day Break on New Year's Eve of 1978/79; a fire in a dumpster 12 days later damaged the building too heavily to save it. In the first decade of the 21st century, there were numerous proposals to operate a ferry between Port Stanley and

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Media

''The Port Stanley News'' was formerly a locally operated news and current events Website/blog that served the Port Stanley area however it is no longer active. ''The Lake Erie Beacon'' was a tabloid community newspaper published bi-weekly, with a distribution of 7000 printed copies and 800 electronic copies however it has ceased publication.Lake Erie Beacon
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Climate

Port Stanley has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

modified somewhat by the waters of

References

External links

Official Port Stanley Website
{{authority control 1804 establishments in Canada Populated places established in 1804 Former villages in Ontario Populated places on Lake Erie in Canada Communities in Elgin County National Historic Sites in Ontario Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby