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Grand Bend - Our Stories, Our Voice
Lambton Heritage Museum
Grand Bend , Ontario

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rest there.
   Making the trip to Grand
Bend was an adventure in
itself: campers and cottagers
arrived by train to either
the Exeter or Parkhill
Station, bringing their
necessities in sturdy trunks.
Usually intending to stay for
a good part of the summer,

they brought victrolas, mats
to hook, folding chairs, food
lockers and ice chests,
washtubs and oil lamps, which
had to be off-loaded at the
Exeter Station and then
hauled by 'stage' to the
lake. For decades, the horse-
drawn stage was a wagon with
benches and a light canvas

top. That service was
motorized in 1910, when the
Guenther family began
providing twice-weekly
service to Grand Bend with a
new autobus, for fifty cents.
   Tourism boomed with the
arrival of the automobile.
Working families from across
western Ontario could now

arrive at the beach for the
day, or the weekend. With
better roads, and ready
access to gasoline fuel for
the cars, Grand Bend
blossomed as a summertime
playground. It boasted three
hotels, one with running
water, an ice cream parlour,
bakeshop, a bowling alley,

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