Port Stanley, Ontario

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Port Stanley

Port Stanley in Ontario

Port Stanley is a community in the Municipality of Central Elgin, Ontario, Elgin County, located on the north shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of Kettle Creek.

A settlement named Kettle Creek was founded here in 1812 by Lieutenant-Colonel John Bostwick. Around 1824, it was renamed Port Stanley after Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, who had visited nearby Port Talbot. Lord Stanley later became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the father of Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, Governor General of Canada, ice hockey enthusiast and donor of the first Stanley Cup in 1893.

Port Stanley has a large sheltered harbour operated by Transport Canada. Historically, these facilities supported trade in coal and wood between Southwestern Ontario and the United States. Today, most of these facilities are dormant, but a commercial freshwater fishery operates from the harbour.

Attractions include a large sandy beach and the Port Stanley Festival Theatre. Port Stanley Terminal Rail operates a tourist train between St. Thomas, Ontario and Port Stanley using a portion of the former L&PS rail line (see The London and Port Stanley Railway).

The village used to have a building opened in 1926 as the L&PS Pavilion, later renamed the Stork Club [1] (not to be confused with the famous New York establishment), with a 13,000 square foot dance floor, the largest dance floor in the London-Port Stanley area; the club was famous for swing dance and big band and attracted several big names to play there. It was closed by health authorities in 1973 because it could not earn the revenue to keep the building up. H.J. McManus, a London businessman, bought it and his son, Joe Jr., led the renovations, reopening in 1974 with the Harry James Orchestra performing before a sell out crowd. The last event was a performance by Day Break on New Year's Eve of 1978/79, a fire set in a dumpster 12 days later damaged the building too heavily to save it.

During the 1970s, the village promoted itself with the acronym CALIPSO: Come And Live In Port Stanley Ontario.

Over the past decade, there have been numerous proposals to operate a ferry between Port Stanley and Cleveland, Ohio.