Sauble Beach, Ontario
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Sauble Beach (pop. 2000) is a beach community and unincorporated area in the town of South Bruce Peninsula,
Bruce County Bruce County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It has eight lower-tier municipalities with a total 2021 population of 73,396. It is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, the sixth Governor General of t ...
, in the northern area of
southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...
,
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 on the
Bruce Peninsula The Bruce Peninsula is a peninsula in Ontario, Canada, that divides Georgian Bay of Lake Huron from the lake's main basin. The peninsula extends roughly northwestwards from the rest of Southwestern Ontario, pointing towards Manitoulin Island, wi ...
, along the eastern shore of
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 ...
, on the north edge of the Saugeen First Nation. The beach takes its name from that given by early French explorers to the sandy Sauble River, originally "La Rivière Au Sable" (sand river) also indicating that the river emptied into Lake Huron at a sandy beach. The river was labelled with the French name on maps until 1881, when it became the Sauble River; in early years, a sawmill was built on the river, and later, a hydro electric plant.


History

Long before any settlers arrived, the Anishinabek of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation looking for a shorter and safer route between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, would cross the peninsula near its base. They would enter near the site of the present-day location of the town of Wiarton and after portaging, would paddle their canoes across the lakes and rivers that almost connect both shores. The route became known as the Rankin Portage and it is suspected that early French explorers used this route to visit the various indigenous communities, which existed in the area and avoid the often-treacherous waters around the tip of the peninsula. The last portage on the route was around a waterfall near the Lake Huron coast. The French explorers named the river, “La Riviere au Sable”, which translates to “the river to the sand”. This name continued until 1881 when a mapmaker, perhaps inadvertently, marked the river with the name “Sauble.” The first settler is reported to have been John Eldridge, who built a cottage nearby in 1877. Other settlers followed and the village continued to grow with a boarding house and then a store. In the 1900s a large sawmill below the falls on the Sauble River employed 40 people. Initially, development was to the south and later to the east of the river. By the early decades of the 1900s, Sauble Beach was attracting visitors because of its gorgeous beaches; this grew as an increasing number of families acquired automobiles. In 2020 as chronicled in the Netflix series Motel Makeover, The June Motel opened at the former Knights Inn.


Beach and other activities

At over long, Sauble Beach is said to be the second longest freshwater beach in Canada after
Wasaga Beach Wasaga Beach (or simply Wasaga) is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Situated along the longest freshwater beach in the world, it is a popular summer tourist destination. It is located along the southern end of Georgian Bay, approximatel ...
. A phenomenon of sandbar deposits building out along the Lake Huron shoreline keeps the water at Sauble very shallow and warm. This is one of the very few beaches in Ontario where cars were, until recently, allowed to drive and park on the sand near the water, at least on the side (left of the entrance) that is part of the Saugeen First Nation native lands. In 2019, however, the First Nation also banned beach parking. Recreational activities include
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
,
windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...
,
water-skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...
,
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
,
golfing Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
,
lawn bowling Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...
,
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
, street dances,
beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...
,
snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...
,
cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...
and birding. The town hosts an annual Winterfest. In summer, there are weekly Family Movie Nights, an annual sandcastle building contest, Cruise Nights on Tuesdays, a Sauble Beach Guitar Festival and an 8 km Walk/Run. The Festival of the Classical Guitar has been held since 2007. The Canadian National (Beach) Volleyball Championships have been held there, and the local
Sauble Speedway Sauble Speedway is a 1/4 mile short track motor racing oval, located east of the beach community Sauble Beach, Ontario, Sauble Beach, in Hepworth, Ontario, Hepworth, Ontario, Canada. The track hosts a weekly Saturday night stock car racing progr ...
(with a Hepworth, Ontario address) was on the
CASCAR The Canadian Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (CASCAR) was an auto racing sanctioning body for amateur and professional stock car racing in Canada. The company was founded in 1981 and was headquartered in Delaware, Ontario. In 2006, NASCA ...
professional racing circuit. The Speedway was purchased by new owners in 2017 and they obtained
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
sanctioning in 2018. A 2023 publication stated that Sauble Beach receives approximately 400,000 tourists annually. Sauble Beach is the permanent year-round home to approximately 2,000 people. The cottage owners add thousands of seasonal community members, some who stay through the spring to fall time period and others who retreat to Sauble on weekends. In summer, the visitor count increases to over 30,000 on hot weekends and up to 60,000 on a long weekend.


Land ownership

Cottage owners are split between those who own a property outright and those with cottages on Native lands. A lease relationship exists between the Saugeen First Nation, who also refer to themselves as the "Chippewas of Saugeen", and those who had built seasonal homes on the Native land in the lakeside area between urban Southampton, Ontario and Sauble Beach. There are approximately 1,200 such cottages. Each cottager on Native land pays an annual fee to the First Nation. A lease contract between the cottagers and two Saugeen First Nation Reserves, Chief's Point 28 and Saugeen 29, expired on 30 April 2021. Some years ago, the Saugeen First Nation successfully reclaimed the land that "runs south from the Sauble Beach sign toward Southampton, 18 kilometres away". The beach area to the south of Main St. in the community is referred to by the band as Sauble Park or South Sauble Beach Park. In addition to the south Sauble Beach area, the Saugeen First Nation claims the rights to another stretch of the public beach, approximately 2 km long, west of Lakeshore Boulevard extending to a point between 1st St. South and 6th St. North. This claim has been in litigation since 1990 when the federal government started an action on behalf of the Saugeen First Nation, stating that the area is part of the Saugeen 29 Reserve. The band also filed its own claim in 1995. On 4 April 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the waterfront area between 1st and 6th is part of the Saugeen reserve, owned by the Saugeen First Nation. The court also ruled that the Government of Canada had abrogated the 1854 Treaty by allowing the beach waterfront to be taken away from the Saugeen. The Town of South Bruce Peninsula council subsequently voted unanimously to appeal the court decision. Later in April 2023, the appeal was filed by the Town and some landowners, requesting that the Court of Appeal set aside the judgment declaring the relevant section of Sauble Beach as First Nation reserve land.


Business and community services

Local businesses offer retail and services for hardware, appliance and grocery shopping, restaurants and hotels, fire and police services, daycare and a medical clinic. Fire Station 40 is located at 21 Sauble Falls Parkway. The town is policed by the
Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...
whose office is in the same building as the fire station. The town is home to the June Motel, a boutique motel featured in the 2021
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
series Motel Makeover.


Education

There is only one school in town under the Bluewater District School Board. Amabel-Sauble Community School was built in 1995 as an experiment in joint ownership between the board and the Township of Amabel (now part of South Bruce Peninsula); the school provides primary curriculum from Jr. Kindergarten to Grade 8. The closest secondary school is Peninsula Shores District School in Wiarton, Ontario. There are no
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
schools in town; the closest schools with the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board are in Port Elgin, Ontario, and
Owen Sound, Ontario Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay. The primary tourist ...
. The closest post-secondary institution is Georgian College's
Owen Sound, Ontario Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay. The primary tourist ...
, campus.


Politics

Sauble Beach is represented by two councillors for Wards 1 and 3 on the Town Council for South Bruce Peninsula in Wiarton, Ontario. There has been friction between the Town of South Bruce and the Saugeen First Nation because of continuing land claims in the Sauble Beach area. A settlement was mediated in 2014 but was subsequently rejected by South Bruce, leading to a lawsuit against the Town, to be heard in court no earlier than 2018. There has also been conflict regarding environmental protection of sensitive dunes and protected species that are located on the beach. Local residents and members of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation protested plans to alter the dunes in December 2020. One resident asked for a judicial review of the work. Provincially and federally, the area is part of the riding of Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound.


Transportation

There is no public transit in Sauble Beach and residents are car-dependent. A few roads serve the area: * Main Street/Bruce County Road 8 * Lakeshore Boulevard North * Sauble Falls Parkway/Southampton Parkway


Notable people

* Lane MacDermid, Retired NHL player * Kurtis MacDermid, NHL player


References


External links


Sauble Beach Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Beaches of Ontario Communities in Bruce County Populated places on Lake Huron in Canada