Port Franks, Ontario

Port Franks is a small Southern Ontario community in the municipality of Lambton Shores, Lambton County in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is located along Kings Highway 21 near Pinery Provincial Park, about north of Thedford, Ontario. Archaeological evidence suggests that human habitation and use of this site date back thousands of years, and that locally obtained flint was manufactured at the so-called 'flint chipping beds' in the vicinity long before the period of European contact with First Nations peoples in the Great Lakes Basin. The "Port Franks" reserve (named for company official Charles Franks and not, as is commonly reported, a Lake Huron sloop captain) was initially laid out by the Canada Company north of the present day village of Grand Bend. However, by 1851 its location was moved south to near the mouth of the Ausable River.