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Was There Ever Commerce or Industry on the Sauble River?

Posted by ptrob on November 19, 2006 - 7:14pm

Was there ever a working industrial port of any kind on the Sauble River? Ever since I can remember (the '60s, when I was a kid) the Sauble seems to have been mainly used for recreation: rent a boat or canoe, go fishing, that sort of thing. My dad, Jack Robertson, and his family grew up in Southampton and summered at Sauble since the '20s, and I don't remember him ever mentioning commercial or industrial use either. But I'm curious. Was there ever a significant non-recreational use of the river? A mill or factory, say? A passenger service to nearby lakeside towns? A commercial fishery? Anything like that at all?

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good question Paul

Submitted by bub on November 19, 2006 - 10:02pm.

The first real industry of course was fishing, but that was early 1800's and not what we consider a massive industry now, but after that of course was the Mill, at the falls, there are still a few remnants there, but I know you know that.With it, was massive logging operations which pretty near got rid of most old growth forest, and now there are a lot of species of trees that really are not local to this area(I'll let Sabrinus get onto this he knows all about this)Further down the river, there are also old remnants of factories, which I think is in Tara area..or something like that, its on a site that is about canoeing along the river, I'll try and dig it up.
But of course, over Southampton/Port Elgin way, there was also a wooded area notorious for stills during the depression...

sauble falls village

Submitted by hockey17 on December 26, 2006 - 8:43pm.

a lot happened here but in the late 1800's early 1990's..a group of folk from here have worked all the summer months and and have set in place plans to outline all that happened there with plaques and pics..so watch for the May unveiling of the work and see how active things were there

A lot of the old-growth timber

Submitted by rcomputer on January 2, 2007 - 3:26pm.

A lot of the old-growth timber would have been lost in the 1902 fire.

sauble falls village

Submitted by hockey17 on May 15, 2007 - 4:13pm.

I Have learned that the Sauble Falls historical committee have completed their efforts on the Sauble Falls village. To that end there will be an official ribbon cutting and dedication hosted by the town on SATURDAY JUNE 9 at 11:00 am . It will be to display the work done by a group of local residents to research ,interpret and develop signage to describe the village of Sauble Falls...the bridge(the first historically designated piece in the town), the hydro electric plant, the sawmill, the school, the homes
and the post office and general store.
it will be a short ceremony but all the people who worked on the project..the committee members, relatives and friends of the pioneers, Ontario Parks, Bruce County museum as well as Bridge Excavating and Echo Graphics and Henderson Paddon have been invited..the public is welcome to come as well...
interesting work to see and it will remain there for future visitors