Port Dover is a community in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, located in Long Point Bay on the north shore of Lake Erie, southeast of Simcoe, Ontario and Halfway House Corners on Highway 6.
In 1670, French missionaries Fran쏿ꟿois Dollier de Casson and Ren쏿 Br쏿hant de Galin쏿e became the first Europeans to winter at what is now modern day Port Dover. Earthen remains and a plaque mark the spot near the fork of the Lynn River (Patterson's Creek to many older Port Doverites) and Black Creek where they and seven Frenchmen built a hut and chapel. By 1794 the first settlers, a group of United Empire Loyalists, had established a hamlet known as Dover Mills (named for the English port of Dover) which was razed to the ground by the Americans in the War of 1812. Subsequent reconstruction took place closer to the mouth of the Lynn River, where a harbour had been in use since the early 1800s. In 1835, merchant Israel Wood Powell registered a village plan for Port Dover. Improvement to the... ...
