by Tyler Kula for the Sarnia Observer (2014) As far as Al Bedard remembers, there was virtually nothing a shopper couldn’t find during its heyday in the 1960s and 70s.The once-prominent shopping sector in an era before Sarnia Township’s amalgamation with Clearwater, boasted everything from lawyers and doctors, to hardware [...]
by Scott Stephenson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) The last big construction boom in the Chemical Valley occurred almost 30 years ago [Editor’s Note-story written in 2003], fueled by the creation of Petrosar. As the country moved out of the 1960s and into the 1970s, Sarnia’s petrochemical industry was ailing. [...]
by Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer (2003) If you wanted to, you could make a pretty good case that Sarnia saved the free world in 1942. It happened during the darkest days of the Second World War when Japanese troops occupied the rubber plantations of Southeast Asia, cutting off [...]
by Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer (2003) There were statesmen and scoundrels, war veterans, a noted investor and even a football hero. In fact, included among the 63 men who have sat in the mayor’s chair during Sarnia’s history have been some of the most colourful characters ever to [...]
by Little White Publishing (2011) Little White Publishing has announced the release of the debut novel by award-winning Sarnia-born writer Bruce Kemp. Set in the last half of the 19th century, Letters From A Fugitive’s Son is an historical epic told through the journals of Frederick Douglass MacDonald and his [...]
by Mary-Jane Egan for the Sarnia Observer (Editor’s Note: Story written at time of Mayor Saddy’s death in 1988) No, he was no saint. Even Bishop Sherlock said so, and he ought to know. But he really was something, wasn’t he? And it’s hard to believe he’s gone. The first [...]
by Paul Morden for the Sarnia Observer (2014) If it weren’t for an American-born engineer who earned the nickname “minister of everything” during his long career in Canadian politics, Sarnia might never have become home to the country’s Chemical Valley. Chosen by Prime Minister Mackenzie King to lead efforts to [...]
by Heather Linda Young for the Sarnia Observer Mulberry House was built by Alexander Mackenzie and home to Mayor Marceil Saddy (2011) If you go to visit Adele Walsh at her downtown Sarnia home, you won't just press a button for the bell to ring. Instead, you'll have to turn [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2015) Today we offer another first hand glimpse (of Sarnia) through the eyes of one Julia Marie Jones, who, in the summer of 1830, kept a journal of her transatlantic crossing and arrival in Upper Canada. Julia was the spirited daughter of Henry [...]
by Cathy Dobson for the Sarnia Observer (2009) Imagine a Sarnia without Highway 402, without the Norman Street Site at Bluewater Health, and without Sarnia Bay Marina. Imagine that the west side of Front Street was filled with nothing but vacant storefronts, not a single downtown high-rise in sight. That's [...]
