A history of Goderich: From inception to 1840s

Located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron and situated at the mouth of the Maitland River, Goderich is notable for its quaint small-town charm and picturesque sunsets.

Goderich – and Huron County - is a strong agricultural community and a popular tourist destination, home to the world’s largest underground salt mine, and picturesque landscapes cut by the rivers winding their way to Lake Huron.

Yet, prior to colonisation, this area was first inhabited by Indigenous people. These groups eventually sold the land in 1826 to the British government, an area of land that would become the Huron Tract and eventually lead to the founding of Goderich in 1827.

Prior to what Goderich is today, for a long time, the lake was understood by groups of Indigenous people who spoke different languages, and the area held cultural, spiritual and economic importance for many Indigenous peoples, including the Anishinaabe and Saugeen First Nation.

Indigenous presence in Huron County stretches back at least 13,000 years.

According to research by Gateway, The Three Fires Confederacy created a powerful political, cultural and defense alliance that prioritised the collective well-being of the people and the earth.

Indigenous communities in the area lived in harmony, but his balance was disrupted after contact with European explorers and missionaries in the 1600s.

Colonisation brought disease, warfare, displacement and forced assimilation.

Widespread agriculture, deforestation, and overhunting by settlers destroyed the Indigenous way of life to prioritise the European way of life and colonisation.

It was in 1827, that the Huron Tract treaty led to the surrender of 2.2 million acres to the Crown, opening the area to European settlement.

Settlement of the area happened in steps and the governing bodies continued to shift over time.

According to historian David Yates, the Duke of Wellington described the problem of defending Canada’s vast wilderness from American republicanism was ‘All frontier and nothing else’.

The British government eagerly embraced any settlement scheme that would keep the British North American colonies within the fold of the Empire.

As a result, the Canada Company was formed as a business venture with a useful political agenda to settle the western reaches of Upper Canada. The Canada Company played a significant role in the colonisation of Upper Canada during the 1800s.

According to Yates, by the time the Huron Tract was opened for settlement in 1827, the Canada Company was in possession of over one million acres of forest on the eastern shores of Lake Huron.

Yates explains in ‘Settling the frontier of Huron’ (2005) that it was a remarkable cast of characters that established the western portion of the Huron Tract. One of the most famous of those characters is Dr. William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop.

In 1826, Dunlop was living in England but answered Galt’s advertisement in a journal requesting help in promoting a Canadian settlement scheme.

Galt recognised his fellow Scot as a man of action and enlisted Dunlop’s services, bringing him on as Warden of the Forests, and together they set out on their Canadian adventure.

It was Dunlop who was ordered by the Canada Company to take an exploring party on an expedition to the shores of Lake Huron. The party dove in on March 9, 1827, from Guelph and blazed a trail west through primeval forest.

When the Canada Company began to scout and clear-cut the area for possible settlements, Dunlop was accompanied by three First Nations guides during the expedition.

Captain Jacob, Louis Cadott and John Brant, a son of the famed loyalist Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant, assisted Dunlop on this task.

Dunlop’s reliance on these First Nations guides, linguists and hunters was paramount to the success he and the Canada Company experienced while settling the Huron Tract and Goderich.

He heeded their advice to wait until February was over before beginning the overland trek because that’s when fish and game would be most plentiful, to help the party survive living in that area while exploring for a site to settle.

In spring of 1827, Dunlop’s party were destitute of provisions while cutting a line through to Lake Huron. They gratefully welcomed local Chippewas who provided fish and corn to the famished party.

Two days following the survey party’s arrival to the shoreline, the future Town of Goderich was founded.

What became known as ‘The Castle’ was a small, crude log structure located in what is now Lion’s Harbour Park, and Dunlop’s first home. This was the first permanent residence in Huron County.

One month later, Galt sailed into the basin of the Menesetung River, and they celebrated their reunion, the founding of the settlement, and the King’s health.

All details are not known when it comes to the founding of Goderich, or where it took place exactly, but one can picture it taking place in Dunlop’s log home on June 29 when he produced a bottle of champagne he had carried through the wilderness for the occasion.

According to Galt, this was the point the new settlement was called Goderich after Viscount Goderich, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and soon to be Prime Minister.

It was a significant visit as well because it was at this moment that the Menesetung River, as the Chippewa called it, was renamed the Maitland River, after Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.

This proposed settlement, in June 1827, consisted only of one small log structure overlooking the bluffs of the Maitland River and Lake Huron.

By 1828, Goderich was made up of the castle and a half-dozen log cabins consisting of French, First Nations and Europeans who worked for the Company.

Louis Belmore, Frank Tranch, Frank Kneshaw, Peter Andrews, Feltie Fisher, and Jasper Gooding were some of the earliest names settled in Goderich.

Persistence, resourcefulness and hard work were traits that gave way for success in the earliest days of colonisation.

Most new homes for settlers were log cabins, furniture was homemade, and timber had to be felled, trimmed, cut and carried home to provide fuel and a source of heat.

The town was finally laid out in 1829.

By 1829, the Canada Company surveyed a town plot, opened the Huron Road from Guelph, and established an office. Goderich soon became the administrative and judicial centre for the newly created Huron District in 1841, with a population of 1,000 by 1842.

By 1846, a harbour was operating, although the docks were not in a good state. In the same year, a lighthouse was erected.

Roads were soon available to Wilmot Township, and to London, Ontario.

Shipbuilding was underway, more homes were being built, and five churches were already standing – four Protestant and one Roman Catholic.

Goderich – and Huron County – was developing quickly.

It was on June 29, 1827, John Galt and Dr. William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop cracked open a champagne bottle and founded the Town of Goderich at the mouth of the Menesetung, but it wasn’t a celebration and the name that made it what it is today.

It was perseverance, adventure, guts and a vision that brought both men – Dunlop and Galt - and many adventurous settlers to Lake Huron’s shores, to create what would eventually be coined at ‘The Prettiest Town in Canada’.

This is an ongoing series of historical features to tell the story of Goderich, in each issue of the Goderich Sun, from June 2026 until June 2027, in anticipation of its bicentennial.