page_title: Port Elgin, Ontario
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Port Elgin, Ontario / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This photographic post card features Goderich Street, Port Elgin. There are buildings, sidewalks, utility poles and cars parked on each side of the street. Visible signs include "Bakery" and "To the Beach." The card bears a white handprint title: "North End Business Block, Port Elgin, Ontario". On the reverse, a handwritten message is addressed to Miss Dorothy Bulmer, 14 Hall Ave., Windsor, Ont. It is postmarked Port Elgin Ont. SP 13 1933. This item is part of the Krug family fonds, series 4, file 2 (Historical records and research - Bruce County postcards).
context_page_description: Port Elgin is a community in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. Originally named Normanton the town was renamed Port Elgin when it was incorporated in 1874, after James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, a former Governor General of the Province of Canada.
  Although road signs indicate the name Port Elgin, it is no longer an entity, per se. In 1998, the Town of Southampton, the Town of Port Elgin and Saugeen Township were amalgamated to form the Town of Port Elgin-Saugeen-Southampton. On December 17, 1998, the Province renamed the new municipality as the Town of Saugeen Shores.
  Unlike "beach towns" such as Sauble Beach, this is a four seasons community where most businesses are open all year and activities for locals are available most months. The primary employment categories are agriculture, small business, tourism and work at the Bruce Power nuclear power station. Close to MacGregor Point Provincial Park and Southampton, the community has several beaches on Lake Huron.
context_section_description: The area that is now Port Elgin was first settled in 1849, by Lachlan McLean ("Loch Buie") who first built a shanty and later ran a tavern, serving settlers and sailors passing through the little port. In spring 1852 George Butchart built a dam and saw-mill on Mill Creek.
  According to a Government of Ontario historic plaque, Butchart sold the mill to Benjamin Shantz who subsequently built a grist-mill and within three years a community of 250 people had developed around these mills. Stores, hotels and tanneries were constructed and in March, 1857, a village plot named Port Elgin was laid out. The enterprise of its businessmen, notably Henry Hilker, Samuel Bricker and John Stafford, contributed to the development of the settlement, which had a population of over 600 by 1867. The arrival of the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway in 1872 further stimulated the growth of the community and it was incorporated as a Village in 1874 with a population of about 950.  Early industries included a steam sawmill, foundry, and woolen mill.
  By 1869 the population was 650 and there was connection by steamship to Southampton and to Goderich. The first shipping pier was built in 1857. In 1873, the railway arrived, allowing Southampton and Port Elgin products to travel far from Lake Huron.
  Agriculture prospered and the shipping industry benefitted from the natural harbour.  Timber, coal, general merchandise and passengers arrived by ship.  Warehouses for storing grain were constructed, and a tannery opened for business, becoming the second largest in Ontario. By the 1880s, tourism was becoming a factor in the economy; passenger boats, largely from the U.S., began visiting this area. In the 1900s, industry in the area declined in the 1900s and the harbour began getting fewer ships as the other modes of transportation improved.
  Tourism became more important in the early 1900s. Development began to be directed in that direction; for example, the harbour was modified for pleasurecraft, the town was beautified and an increasing number of cottages were built. The library was built in 1908 with assistance from the Carnegie Fund, a secondary school was completed in 1889, with additions made in 1939. The school was replaced with a more modern structure in 1975.
  The Government of Ontario also erected another historic plaque in Port Elgin, titled The "Nodwell" Indian Village Site. "This important Iroquoian village site was discovered about 1900, and named after the family which then owned the property. Subsequent archaeological examinations have uncovered a mid-14th century village, consisting of twelve longhouses, from 42 to 139 feet in length, protected by a double palisade. It was probably occupied for about 10 to 20 years by a group of some 500 people who were predecessors of the Huron and Petun Indians. Although primarily farmers who grew corn, tobacco and probably pumpkins and sunflowers, they also engaged in considerable fishing and hunting. A large number of artifacts have been retrieved from this site including fragments of pottery cooking vessels, smoking pipes, arrow heads, adzes, awls and netting needles."
caption: View of the north end of the business district of Port Elgin in 1933
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