Sauble Beach, Ontario, is a charming beach community nestled in the town of South Bruce Peninsula, Bruce County. This unincorporated area, with a population of around 2000, is located in the northern region of southwestern Ontario, Canada. It sits on the Bruce Peninsula, along the eastern shore of Lake Huron, on the north edge of the Saugeen First Nation. The beach and the river it's named after, Sauble River, owe their names to early French explorers who referred to the sandy river as "La Rivière Au Sable" (sand river).
Long before settlers arrived, the Anishinabek of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation used the area as a shortcut between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. This route, known as the Rankin Portage, was likely used by early French explorers to visit indigenous communities and avoid the treacherous waters around the peninsula's tip.
The first settler, John Eldridge, built a cottage in 1877, and the village grew steadily with the addition of a boarding house and a store. In the 1900s, a large sawmill on the Sauble River employed 40 people, and the village expanded south and east of the river. Sauble Beach began attracting visitors in the early 1900s due to its beautiful beaches, a trend that grew as more families acquired automobiles. In 2020, The June Motel, featured in the Netflix series Motel Makeover, opened at the former Knights Inn.
Sauble Beach, Ontario, boasts the second-longest freshwater beach in Canada, stretching over seven miles (11 km). A phenomenon of sandbar deposits along the Lake Huron shoreline keeps the water at Sauble Beach shallow and warm. Until 2019, it was one of the few beaches in Ontario where cars were allowed to drive and park on the sand.
Recreational activities in Sauble Beach include swimming, windsurfing, water-skiing, fishing, golfing, lawn bowling, tennis, street dances, beach volleyball, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and birding. The town hosts an annual Winterfest, weekly Family Movie Nights, an annual sandcastle building contest, Cruise Nights on Tuesdays, a Sauble Beach Guitar Festival, and an 8 km Walk/Run. The Festival of the Classical Guitar has been held since 2007. The Canadian National (Beach) Volleyball Championships have been held there, and the local Sauble Speedway was on the CASCAR professional racing circuit.
Cottage owners in Sauble Beach, Ontario, are split between those who own a property outright and those with cottages on Native lands. A lease relationship exists between the Saugeen First Nation, who also refer to themselves as the "Chippewas of Saugeen", and those who had built seasonal homes on the Native land in the lakeside area between urban Southampton, Ontario and Sauble Beach. There are approximately 1,200 such cottages. Each cottager on Native land pays an annual fee to the First Nation.
There is no public transit in Sauble Beach, Ontario, and residents are car-dependent. The area is served by a few roads, including Main Street/Bruce County Road 8, Lakeshore Boulevard North, and Sauble Falls Parkway/Southampton Parkway.
