Lambton Family HubGuidebooksSt. Clair Township: Corunna, Mooretown, Courtright, Sombra and Port Lambton along the river, Brigden and Wilkesport behind it
Things to Do in St. Clair Township with Kids
Freighters, a border you can see across, and seven villages strung along the bank.
Every freighter is a geography lesson.
Make a day of it
St. Clair Township is a river with villages on it. Corunna, Mooretown, Courtright, Sombra and Port Lambton sit one after another along the St. Clair, close enough to the water that a lake freighter passes the end of the street, and close enough to Michigan that children can point at another country. Brigden and Wilkesport sit back in the farm country behind. The township owns eight kilometres of that waterfront, with eleven parks and a trail that links the river villages, and it is the reason a day here feels different from a day in any inland town.
This guide starts with the river's stories, because they are what a child will remember: a capital city that was surveyed at Corunna and never built, beer scows waiting off Port Lambton during Prohibition, a resort island with steamers and a dance pavilion, and two very odd geniuses from two very small villages. Each story ends with what you need to actually go: where to park by the river, what is open, what to tell the children. After that come the parks, the fair and the rainy-day standbys we would build the rest of the day around, and the details a parent wants before leaving the house.
Pick one village and stay.
The river will bring the freighters to you.
This week in St. Clair Township
3:30 PM
Kids' Club - Skull LanternsCorunna Library
4 PM
Junior Makers - Leaf RubbingPort Lambton Library
3:30 PM
Kids' Club - Fall LeavesCorunna Library
4:30 PM
Kids CraftCourtright Library
9:35 AM
Toddler TalesPort Lambton Library
3:30 PM
Tween Makers - Perler Bead Key ChainsBrigden Library
Local stories
The river,
in three stories.
A capital that was never built, beer scows and a resort island, and two large minds from two small villages. Each story ends with where to go.
Story one / Wide streets
The capital that was never built
Corunna was meant to be somewhere else entirely. In 1823 the village was surveyed as a proposed capital for a united Upper and Lower Canada, with broad streets laid out to echo the Union Jack. Look at a map of the village and the pattern is still there. The plan was dropped because the site sat too close to the United States border, which is the same thing that makes it a good place to stand today: the other shore is a few hundred metres away, and it is another country.
What Corunna got instead was the river. Lake freighters bound for Lake Huron or the lower lakes come through the St. Clair close to the Canadian bank, and in a village this size they pass the end of the street. Children learn to read the names on the bows and guess where the ship is from. Ask them to watch the pilot house; you might even get a wave from a passing crew.
Underneath all of it is a stranger piece of geography. The township sits on porous rock caverns that happen to be well suited to storing hydrocarbons, which is one reason so much of the petrochemical industry, including Shell's Corunna refinery, ended up along this stretch of river. Above ground, the township has spent nearly two decades building the opposite: the St. Clair River Trail, eight kilometres of waterfront and eleven parks, joining every village from Sombra to Mooretown.
If you go
The trail is a paved path along the water between Sombra and Mooretown, with a park every few minutes and Michigan on the far bank the whole way. Pick a village, park by the river, walk or ride a short section and turn back; decide the turnaround before you set off, because the car is where you left it. The river edge is open and the current is strong, so a trail outing does not mean the river is for swimming. Give the children one job: read the name on the next freighter's bow before it passes.
Story two / Scows and steamers
Beer scows, a resort island and the river between
During Prohibition in the United States, the St. Clair River was a border you could row across, and people did. By 1924, large beer scows and brewery distribution stations were operating along the Port Lambton waterfront, and Port Lambton became a major centre of the cross-river beer trade and rum-running. It is a good story for the drive along the river road, with the far bank in view the whole way.
The island you can see off Corunna has a gentler past. Stag Island was among the river islands the Chippewa kept under Treaty 29 in 1827, and around 1890 it was developed as a summer resort, with a hotel, cottages, a dining hall and a dance pavilion, reached by excursion steamers from the Canadian and American shores. Before family cars, getting there was the outing. When the car arrived the steamers stopped, and the resort faded into a private cottage community, which it remains.
You cannot land there, and there is no need to. The island is best seen from the Corunna waterfront, and the Moore Museum keeps the photographs. We have told the whole story, albino turtles included, in our own piece.
If you go
Stag Island is private, with no public ferry or landing, so this is a viewing stop, not a visit. Stand on the Corunna waterfront along the St. Clair Parkway, tell the story, and watch the freighters go by on the far side of it. The historic photographs, hotel and steamers included, are at the Moore Museum in Mooretown.
Story three / Two small villages, two large minds
An equation from Port Lambton, a thousand tricks from Courtright
Maud Menten was born in Port Lambton in 1879. She became one of the first women in Canada to earn a medical doctorate, and later worked with Leonor Michaelis in Berlin on the research that produced the equation she is remembered for: the Michaelis–Menten equation, which describes how enzymes speed up a reaction. It is still taught in every biochemistry course in the world, and it carries the name of a girl from a small village on the St. Clair River.
A few kilometres upriver, Stewart James of Courtright spent his life inventing card tricks, more than a thousand of them, from his home in the village. After touring as a young magician he largely stepped away from public performance and became famous instead for inventing and publishing original magic, work that magicians consider some of the most original their art has produced. Two people, two villages, and no monument to either. The river was the only thing they had in common.
The museums keep this kind of story. The Sombra Museum, in the Victorian Bury House, covers the southern villages and the river; the Moore Museum at Mooretown covers the northern ones with a whole street of heritage buildings. Choose one per visit.
If you go
Choose one museum per visit. The Sombra Museum is an old house, so ask which rooms and exhibits are open and talk through any access needs first; its walking-tour map of the village runs about 2.5 km, and younger children may enjoy just a few stops. The Moore Museum is a multi-building site with outdoor travel between spaces, ramp access to most buildings but not the caboose, a family washroom with a baby-change station, and a model-train display that holds a train-loving child longer than anything else in the township; opening changes by season, so confirm the day. Admission applies at both.
Round out the day
Small outings.
Long memories.
The stories above give you the trail, the island and the museums. These are the parks, the fair and the rainy-day standbys we would build the rest of the day around. Our suggestions are not venue age rules or promises of availability.
Eleven parks, one river
The riverside parks
The township's waterfront parks are the freighter-watching seats. Brander Park at Port Lambton has a pond and room to run; Sombra Park sits by the village; the Corunna waterfront looks straight at Stag Island. Corunna Athletic Park, Courtright Community Park and Wilkesport Park have the playgrounds and seasonal water play.
Parent details for the riverside parks 
Water on one side and the parkway on the other: agree where children can run and where they stay close. Food vendors and splash pads are seasonal, so pack snacks and spare clothes and check the township's current operating information before promising water play.
Get directions
Thanksgiving weekend, every year
Brigden Fair
The county's biggest fair, running since 1850 and now filling all four days of Thanksgiving weekend: midway, livestock, parade, tractor pull and exhibit halls. The photograph is a vintage view of the same grounds.
Parent details for the Brigden Fair
Fair days bring admission, crowds and parking arrangements that an ordinary visit to Brigden does not. Check the schedule and gates in our fair guide before you go.
Get directionsWhen the weather turns
Mooretown Sports Complex
The township's indoor pool and arena, on the road between Mooretown and the museum. Plan around a published public swim, skate or children's program rather than the building's hours.
Parent details for the Mooretown Sports Complex
Check the actual session and its admission rules, not just opening times, and bring the equipment the operator lists. Swimming lessons are booked separately through Community Services.
Get directionsNearby in Dawn-Euphemia, on the Sydenham
Shetland Conservation Area
East of the township in Dawn-Euphemia, where the back roads wind through cash-crop country to hamlets like Florence and Shetland. Picnic grounds since 1936, fourteen riverside acres for paddling and quiet camping, and a leg of the Sydenham River canoe and kayak race each spring.
Parent details for the Shetland Conservation Area
A separate outing from the river villages; allow driving time. Check seasonal facilities, fees and river conditions with the municipality before promising a paddle.
Get directionsMake it a date
Something to look forward to.
A library day
Seven small branches, one per village, each with its own opening days. Choose a branch and browse its calendar. Check the session's ages, time and registration before making plans.
See Corunna Library calendarThe useful bits
A little planning.
A better day.
Choose one village. Have a backup. Leave room to change your mind.
Which village should we start with?
The township is a string of villages close enough to explore together in a short drive, but trying to see them all uses up the day in the car. Corunna for Stag Island, the waterfront and the most services; Mooretown for the museum and the pool; Port Lambton and Sombra for a slower southern day with Brander Park and the Sombra Museum. Bright’s Grove is not here: it is part of Sarnia, and its beach belongs in our Bright’s Grove guide.
Can the children swim in the river?
Treat the river as a viewing stop. The current is strong, the banks are open and the ships are large. Freighter-watching from a park bench is the activity; for planned swimming choose a public swim at the Mooretown Sports Complex or a seasonal splash pad.
What if it rains?
A scheduled swim or skate at the Mooretown Sports Complex, the Moore Museum's indoor buildings, or a village library. Check opening days and session times; these are options, not guaranteed drop-ins. More indoor ideas.
When is the Brigden Fair?
Thanksgiving weekend, every October, on the fairgrounds at Brigden. It is the largest fair in the county, so expect admission, crowds and traffic that an ordinary day in the village does not have. The schedule is in our fall fair guide.
Where should we start with younger children?
Keep the number of stops low: one riverside park for the freighters and a picnic, then a short walk on the trail. EarlyON runs sessions in Corunna and Port Lambton and a mobile program in Brigden; check the current meeting place on the EarlyON Lambton calendar before driving between villages.
Historical notes draw on the Moore Museum, the Sombra Museum, St. Clair Township and Lambton Family Hub's own Stag Island story. Programme details were checked against the linked municipal, library, museum and operator sources in September 2026; opening, prices and availability can change, and the links take you to the current details. Suggested outings are our planning ideas, not venue schedules. Suggest a correction.