Chatham-Kent

Chatham-Kent is a municipality of 104,000 people (2021) which includes the former city of Chatham in southwestern Ontario, between Windsor and London. The municipality is defined as all of Kent County including Blenheim, Chatham, Dresden, Ridgetown, Tilbury and Wallaceburg.

For other places with the same name, see Chatham (disambiguation).

Chatham was established in the 1790s as a naval dockyard on the Thames River. In the War of 1812, the Battle of the Thames was fought on October 5, 1813; the area is also included in the signed African-Canadian Heritage Tour route as a part of the Underground Railroad.

Get in

By car

From Highway 401, take exit 81 (CR 27 - Bloomfield Road) or exit 90 (Highway 40 north, Communication Road).

By train
See also: Rail travel in Canada

By bus

Get around
  • Ride CK, ☏ +1 519-436-3233. 6:15AM-7:15PM, no evening or Sunday service. Local city bus in Chatham on five routes. There is also service from Chatham to towns like Wallaceburg, Dresden, Blenheim, Ridgetown, and Tilbury. $2.50/person (local, as of 2022). 
  • Many of the locations listed here are rural and most easily accessed by automobile. Note that "Highway 2" (Queen's Line, through downtown Chatham) and "Highway 3" (Talbot Trail, along the Lake Erie waterfront) are marked locally as county or regional roads on maps issued after 1998. Highway 2 is the original main road from Windsor to Montreal (bypassed by 401), Highway 3 is the road from Detroit (bridge and tunnel) to the Buffalo-Niagara region along the north shore of Lake Erie.

See
  • 🌍 Artspace, 165 1/2 King St. W, N7M 1E4, ☏ +1 519-253-1064. Tu-Sa noon-5PM. Local art and photo exhibition gallery. 
  • 🌍 Buxton National Historic Site & Museum, 21975 A.D. Shadd Road, North Buxton, ☏ +1 519-352-4799, fax: +1 519-352-8561. May-Sep: W-Su 1-4:30PM, Jul Aug: daily 10AM-4:30PM, Oct: M-F 1-4:30PM. Museum and 1861 schoolhouse, 1854 log cabin and barn. A tribute to the 1849 Elgin Settlement, a haven for fugitive slaves and free Blacks and a final stop on the Underground Railroad. An annual Buxton Homecoming cultural festival in September recalls the roots laid by early black settlers in the area. Adult $7, senior or student $6, child free. (updated Aug 2020)
  • 🌍 Chatham Capitol Theatre, 238 King Street W, ☏ +1 519-380-0174, toll-free: +1-866-807-7770. Live theatre in former 1930 movie house. 
  • 🌍 Chatham-Kent Museum, 75 William St. N., ☏ +1 519-360-1998. W-F 1-7PM, Sa Su 11AM-4PM. One of the highlights of the collection at this all-purpose local history museum are some of the personal effects of American abolitionist John Brown, whose failed 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia was contemporaneous with the height of the Underground Railroad era and stoked tensions on both sides of the slavery divide in the runup to the Civil War. (updated Aug 2020)
  • 🌍 Mary Webb Cultural and Community Centre, 87 Main St, Highgate, ☏ +1 519-674-2223. Concert, art exhibition and cultural event venue in former Highgate United Church, a century-old historic church deconsecrated in 2010. 
  • 🌍 Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site, 29251 Uncle Tom's Road, Dresden, ☏ +1 519-683-2978, fax: +1 519 683 1256. Museum based on the memoirs of abolitionist Rev. Josiah Henson (1796-1883), which inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. 
  • 🌍 Wallaceburg and District Museum, 505 King St, Wallaceburg, ☏ +1 519-627-8962. Local history from the initial 1804 Baldoon Settlement through industrialisation, including lumber mills and cooperages. $3/person. 

Do
  • Greenview Aviaries, 12752 Talbot Trail Morpeth, Ridgetown, ☏ +1 519-674-3025, fax: +1 519-674-9934. May-Oct 9AM-8PM. Water park, playground, picnic site and zoo; 77-seat Duffy's Bar and Grill serves burgers, chicken, pizza. 
  • Red Devil Scuba, 771 St Clair St, ☏ +1 519-358-1988. Scuba and snorkelling supplies, training, local dive excursions. 
  • Wallaceburg Trails Association, 505 King St, Wallaceburg. Network of on-road, off-road and water trails in and around the Wallaceburg area. 

Events and festivals
  • Boot Hill Country Jamboree, 15722 Turin Line, Bothwell, ☏ +1 519-678-3434. Three-day country music festival on Civic Holiday (first weekend in August). 
  • RetroFest, Downtown Chatham. Kent Historic Auto Club car show, Friday and Saturday of Victoria Day weekend in late May. 
  • Ribfest, Tecumseh Park, William St. N, ☏ +1 519-365-8700. Weekend in early July, food, live entertainment. 
  • Selkirk History Faire, MacDonald Park St. Clair Parkway, Wallaceburg. Last weekend in August. Historical re-enactment of 1804 Scottish colonisation of the Snye River near Wallaceburg. Scottish and Native displays, storytelling, crafts, blacksmithing, campfire cooking, live music highland dancing, voyager canoes and longboats. 
  • Wallaceburg Antique Motor and Boat Outing (WAMBO), Wallaceburg Civic Park. Second weekend in August. Antique cars, boats, aircraft, firetrucks, motorcycles. Model toys, arts, crafts, soap box derby, parades and classic car cruise. Food and drink, dance, live music and karaoke. 

Fishing charters

Golf

Buy

Chatham-Kent is a collection of individual, separate small towns; each of Chatham. Blenheim, Ridgetown, Wallaceburg and Tilbury has its own independent downtown core with an assortment of boutiques and stores.

Eat

Farms
  • Delhaven Orchards, 8182 Talbot Trail, Blenheim, ☏ +1 519-676-4475, fax: +1 519-676-1506. Working 400-acre family farm and store: apples and cider, peaches, cherries, strawberries. 
  • Parks Country Store, 14815 Longwoods Rd, Bothwell, ☏ +1 519-692-5373. Apr 18-Dec 24: 8AM-5:30PM. U-pick blueberry farm with country store and bakery, café/restaurant. 

Drink

Wineries

Sleep

Hotels and motels
  • Bayview Bliss Cabins, 17655 Erieau Rd, Blenheim (on Rondeau Bay), ☏ +1 519-676-2238. Canoe, bicycle and paddleboat rentals, boat dockage up to 24 feet. campsite $15-25, cabin $60-120/night. 
  • Days Inn, 76 McNaughton Ave, Wallaceburg, ☏ +1-519-627-0781, toll-free: +1-866-627-0781, fax: +1-519-627-0781. 46 rooms, refrigerators, breakfast, wi-fi. 
  • Molly and OJs Restaurant & Lakeside Inn, 875 Mariners Rd, Erieau, ☏ +1 519-676-8812, fax: +1 519-676-6752. Check-in: 2PM, check-out: 11AM. Steak and seafood restaurant, chicken take-out, Sandbar Pub, eight cottages with private beach and boat storage. $60-160/night. 
  • Oaks Inn, 80 Mc Naughton Ave, Wallaceburg, ☏ +1 519-627-1433, toll-free: +1-888-627-1433, fax: +1 519-627-6101. Savannah Grille, lounge, indoor heated salt-water pool and health club. 
  • Retro Suites Hotel, 2 King Street W, ☏ +1 519-351-5885, toll-free: +1-866-617-3876, fax: +1 519-351-5375. Boutique hotel in downtown Chatham. Retro Suites has unique rooms, each with their own theme, and exposed brick throughout. Street-level Chilled Cork Restaurant Lounge (22 William Street, +1 519-354-7818) for casual fine dining M-F 7AM-9PM, Sa 9AM-9PM, Su 9AM-2PM. 
  • Super 8, 25 Michener Rd, N7L 4B8 (near Hwy 40/Grand Ave E.), ☏ +1 519-354-3366, fax: +1 519-354-8468. 
  • Saxony Motel, 521 Grand Avenue East, ☏ +1 519 354 4881, . Check-in: 2PM, check-out: 11AM. 31 rooms with Led TVs, fridge, microwave and free internet, decorated with modern decor. (updated Jun 2018)

Bed and breakfast

Camping

Go next
Routes through Chatham-Kent
Windsor ←  W  E  → London → Toronto
Ends at ← Windsor ←  W  E  → London → Toronto
END ← Sarnia ←  N  S  → END


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