Grand Bend was first
settled in the 1830s by the
mill hands of Benjamin
Brewster & Company. Logs from
The Pinery were hauled here
to be sawn by water power,
and the workers built their
shanties nearby. The isolated
hamlet took its name from the
hairpin turn in the Ausable
| River, and was popularly
referred to as "the Grand
Bend".
At that time, the
settlement was connected to
other communities along the
eastern shoreline of Lake
Huron only by the periodic
visits of lake steamers. The
building of "The Mercantile
| Road" (later the Bluewater
Highway) by the Canada
Company in the 1850s would
provide the first reliable
access to settlers and
traders alike. Recreational
tourists would soon follow.
By the 1870s, visitors
from outside the tiny
community had discovered the
| combination of forest, sand
and water to be enjoyed at
Grand Bend. People came to
“take the healthful vigours
of the natural pine ozone”,
the fresh lakeside air
thought to be a “restorative
for the physic”, with the
infirm, ill and convalescent
directed by physicians to
|