South Bruce Peninsular - History In Photos - The Land Before Dunes - Comments

Building Higher Dunes

Dodge — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:54:12 -0400

View looking north past the Sixth St. washroom. You can just see a vehicle on Lakeshore. The dunes have reached 25 -30 feet in height and secondary growth is well established. View from lowest elevation cottages is blocked or partially blocked.

As lake water levels are predicted to trend lower the tree line will move west and more dunes will build. The dance of vegetation and dunes and shorelines has been going on for thousands of years.

See If You Can Find A 3000 Year Old Dune On This Beach

Dodge — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:56:36 -0400

Lets move on a little south down the beach away from the tennis court. This cottage was built in 1915 and was one of the very first beachfront buildings. What a view they must have had.

If you look closely you can see that no one has been raking the beach. That idea was still 75 years away. Driftwood logs indicate 10 year high water mark. Any of the dune formations that were here before cottages actually now have cottages built on them. That is because the dunes were all east of Lakeshore. The presence of cottages changed the wind patterns and started small dunes west of Lakeshore during the 20th century. These again grew on themselves just like a snowdrift in front of a snowfence. Dunes, even the ones with vegetation are transistory and should never be regarded as permanent structure. As secondary vegetation and trees establish west of Lakeshore the dunes will again follow the lower level waterline in a westerly direction. This assumption is based on the observation that the current dunes were wind created in the last 80 years.

Want to explore a bit?
You can see this building today and it looks much the same. Look around address 1007.

The pictures are dated 1916 and the sand road is not visible in front but must have been there. Photos courtesy of GJ.

Tennis Court From The Air -No Dunes

Dodge — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 23:05:18 -0400

From a post card.

You can just make out a car about halfway between the river and the tennis court. This gives some perspective to the scrub grass and rolling sand that existed before there were any dunes on the beach. It is only a few steps from the tennis court to the water and it is likely that a tennis player could see people wading at the waters edge. Today the dunes have built to the point where many cottages are losing their most valuable asset, a water front view of the beach.

The main road was sand. Dorans can be seen but there is no Kitwat development downstream of that location.

The lake level is high compared to present day levels and you can see the close proximity to the cottages that were built on the point. Some few years after this picture was taken I can recall sand bags there.

"Cottages" Postcard Predates Electrical Service

Dodge — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:46:49 -0400

There is no evidence of utility poles or wires in the black and white postcards. These cards were probably sold over a number of years.

History In Photos - The Land Before Dunes

Dodge — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:53:09 -0400

Cottages On Sauble River, Sauble Beach Ont.

Undated photo

There are at least two cottages on the spit. There are no dunes.

Modern View:

Dune formation looking north from a location west of the tennis court. 60,000 cubic yards of sand have appeared