Port Colborne is famous for its location on the St. Lawrence Seaway's Welland Canal. This strategic setting at the southern terminus of the canal has allowed Port Colborne to become one of the nation's largest inland ports.
The first European settlers in Gravelly Bay (now Port Colborne) arrived from Pennsylvania in the late 1780s. This area, for centuries prior, was the site for temporary and permanent Aboriginal settlement. Agriculture remained the primary activity in the area until the 1830s, when Gravelly Bay was chosen as the southern port for the First Welland Canal. The village grew rapidly with the construction of the Canal. In 1834, William Hamilton Merritt purchased the land of Gravelly Bay to establish an important trade centre. Merritt, the driving force behind the Canal's construction, renamed the village Port Colborne in honour of Sir John Colborne, Governor General at the time. Stores, some industries, a hotel and a post office were established and Port Colborne soon became a thriving trade village. Ships waiting to pass through the Welland Canal bought supplies and services from the ship-chandleries, markets and skilled men in the village. A demand for tug boats and fresh produce attracted many enterprising individuals to the canal village. By 1858 two railway companies had chosen the prosperous centre to be their southern terminus, thereby creating new industrial diversity and broader trade connections in Port Colborne.
The present City of Port Colborne is an amalgamation of two municipalities, Port Colborne and Humberstone. Humberstone is the older of the two, and was first called Stonebridge, and later on Petersburg. Humberstone is the north end of the city, and centres around Main Street (Highway #3).
Port Colborne was incorporated as a Town in 1870 and as a City in 1966. With the formation of the Niagara Region in 1970, the Township of Humberstone was incorporated into the City expanding Port Colborne's boundaries to Welland and Fort Erie. Port Colborne has diversified over the decades into industries such as metal refining, food processing, gas exploration, clothing manufacturing and most recently tourism. Yet it remains a vital port community involved in grain milling and elevator storage, ship repair and servicing, and fuel and coal storage.
