The changing course of the Ausable River has shaped the environmental history of Lambton County. The scenic river is home to diverse wildlife and vegetation. It has been used as a transportation artery, shipping route, and recreation site. Attempts to harness the river’s power have fueled mills, caused destructive flooding, and altered the geography of the region.
During the last ice age over 11,000 years ago, large glacial lakes covered the Great Lakes. A barrier of sand dunes developed along the edge of one of the lakes and cut off a lagoon from the rest of the lake. Today, the dunes form the iconic geography of Pinery Provincial Park and familiar sand hills of Port Franks. The lagoon became a large wetland that included Lake Smith, Lake George, and Lake Burwell.
The source of the Ausable River is in Huron County. The river’s course winds south through Exeter, Ailsa Craig, and Hungry Hollow before heading north. When European settlers explored the region in the early 1800s, the Ausable made a sharp 180 degree turn where the community of Grand Bend is now located. This river feature inspired the name Grand Bend. Then, the Ausable continued southwest beyond the bend, entering Lake Huron near Port Franks.
The Canada Company was formed in Britain to buy land in Upper Canada, build roads, churches, schools, and mills, then resell the land to settlers at a profit. In 1826, they acquired over 1,000,000 acres known as the Huron Tract. This included the land between Port Franks and Grand Bend in Lambton County.
Around 1832, two men named Brewster and Pettis received patents to form Brewster, Pettis and Company. They negotiated timber rights and bought land from the Canada Company. The deal stipulated that they build a sawmill and dam. Brewster’s Mill and dam were built on lot four of the Lake Road West concession in Bosanquet Township at Grand Bend.
The site was extremely isolated. The only inhabitants were the mill workers and their families. The first road into the area was built from Goderich in 1850. There were several fisheries along the lake and likely some settlers supported the mill downstream at Port Franks. Timber from the mill was floated on scows to the river mouth at Port Franks then loaded onto ships.
A London Free Press article from November 13, 1851, described Brewster’s Mill:
“At the bend of the Sable, ten miles from the mouth, is an extensive sawmill owned by Brewster, Pettis & Co. This mill has two upright saws and four other saws for lathing, etc. The Company employ from twenty to thirty men in getting out lumber, they have an extensive pinery eighteen miles above, and expect to make three million feet of lumber this season. The mill dam at this place causes the water to overflow a large extent of country above, and it is in contemplation by the Company to take away the dam and build a steam sawmill at the mouth of the river.”
In 1836, David Smart et al. bought at least 19 lots from the Canada Company in the Lake Road East and Lake Road West concessions of Bosanquet Township. For the next 30 years, ownership of these lots passed among a group of wealthy men who were based in Detroit, Michigan. These men included: David Smart, William Brewster, Benjamin Brewster, Jonah Brewster, Daniel Charles Pettis, Nicholas Greusel, Henry Kirkland Sanger, and John Owen. The Brewster who owned Brewster’s Mill was nicknamed “Professor” and called Benjamin, Richard, or William. He may not have lived in the area and was likely a business partner to many of the men listed above. An 1850 directory for Detroit, Michigan, lists Brewster, Greusel & Co. as lumber merchants. Detroit may have been a lucrative market for the Bosanquet timber.
As noted by the London Free Press, Brewster’s dam was blamed for flooding large areas around the low-lying Ausable River in Williams, Biddulph, McGillivray, and Stephen townships. Farmland became unusable and the Canada Company was unable to sell more property in the area. No one was happy about the dam. In the 1850s, the Canada Company started legal proceedings to force demolition of the dam (even though they sold the land on condition that a mill and dam be built). They also wanted Brewster and Company to pay the cost of damage to the settler’s lands. The mill proprietors fought back legally and were granted relief. They offered to tear down the dam for a reasonable payment but the Canada Company refused. In the 1860s, a mob of rioting settlers burned the mill and destroyed the dam. Imaginative accounts describe the mob as being armed with axes, hooks, spades, picks, crowbars, and pine-knot torches as they descended upon the mill and mill-dam. They demolished what they could and set fire to anything that remained above water.
In 1868, John Dalziel, already the owner of a sawmill at Port Franks, bought Brewster’s property near Grand Bend. By 1875, he had built a sawmill and a grist mill (the Caledonian Flour Mill) near the hairpin bend in the Ausable, north of Brewster’s dam. The mill is illustrated in a lithograph from the Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Huron (1879).
Despite the destruction of Brewster’s dam by angry settlers, the Ausable continued to flood. In 1872, the Canada Company had a new plan to ease the flooding and make their low-lying properties saleable. A large canal was excavated from the Ausable River northeast of Thedford directly through the sand dunes to Port Franks. The massive engineering project, locally known as the Cut, was completed in 1875.
A Canada Company map dated May 20, 1874, shows the location of the Cut in red. The Cut bisects the marshlands of lakes Burwell, George, and Smith. To the south it ends at a dam that marks where the northward flow of the Ausable was diverted. In the upper righthand corner, Lot 4 is where Brewster’s Mill and dam were built. Lot 1 is the site of the later sawmill and gristmill.
The Cut forever changed the course of the Ausable. It drained Lake Burwell and Lake George, creating the fertile area of reclaimed marshland known as the Thedford Flats. This area supports specialized crops such as celery, onions, and root crops. Digging the channel altered the natural mouth of the Ausable. Sand dunes shifted to block the southerly flow of the river downstream from Grand Bend. The Cut also diverted all the water from the Ausable directly into the harbour at Port Franks. This made Port Franks vulnerable to flooding despite lowering the water level in the river.
In 1892, another Cut was excavated at Grand Bend at the site of the former portage between the Ausable River and Lake Huron. This Cut provided an outlet for the Mud Creek branch of the Ausable from Parkhill. It also provided a fishing port for the community.
Today, the formerly south-flowing segment of the Ausable between Grand Bend and Port Franks is known as the Old Ausable Channel. In Grand Bend you can see the remains of Brewster’s dam and mill pond behind the Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church on Highway 21. From there, the Old Ausable Channel meanders through Pinery Provincial Park. It has no source other than rain and run-off and mellowly joins the Ausable River near Port Franks.
Contact Us
Subscribe to this page