In pre-
colonial times, Indigenous people of the
Onguiaahra (Neutral Iroquois) lived in the area, due in part to the ready availability of
flint and
chert from outcroppings on the
Onondaga Escarpment. This advantage was diminished by the introduction of firearms by European traders, and they were driven out by the Six Nations of the
Iroquois around 1650 as part of the
Beaver Wars. Originally called Gravelly Bay, after the shallow, bedrock-floored bay upon which it sits, today's City of Port Colborne traces its roots back to the
United Empire Loyalist settlements that grew up in the area following the
American Revolution. Growth became focused around the southern terminus of the
Welland Canal after it reached
Lake Erie in 1833. The town was the location of the
Port Colborne explosion, a grain elevator explosion in 1919 that killed 10 and injured 16. As the population rose,
Welland County was formed in 1845 from
Lincoln County and Port Colborne was incorporated as a village in 1870, became a town in 1918, merged with the neighbouring Village of Humberstone in 1952, and was re-incorporated as a city in 1966. In 1970, Niagara Region municipal restructuring added Humberstone Township, further expanding the city. In the year 1888, American tourists from the
Southern states began building vacation homes on the lakeshore of the Western edge of the town. By 1890, an entire gated community of vacationers from the US South called Port Colborne their home during the summer months, naming the community The Humberstone Club. Over 30 grand summer homes, along with a variety of clubhouses and service buildings, were built along the lake in the following years, many of which still stand today on historic Tennessee Avenue. The southern architecture and style of these buildings would influence the design and construction of other historic buildings in the area. During the
American Civil War,
Varina Davis, wife of Confederacy President
Jefferson Davis, spent three years in the relative comfort and safety of the community. Port Colborne was one of the hardest hit communities during the
Blizzard of 1977. Thousands of people were stranded when the city was paralyzed during the storm, and the incident remains one of significance to the local population.
Environmental concerns Emissions from
Inco's base metal refinery, closed in 1984, resulted in soils contaminated with concentrations of nickel, copper and cobalt above the Ontario Ministry of the Environment's "soil remediation criteria." However, two studies, one in 1997 and another in 1999 found "[no] adverse health effects which may have resulted from environmental exposures." Some residents launched a
Class-Action Lawsuit against Inco in 2001 seeking $750 million in damages to health, property value, and quality-of-life. Although this suit failed to be certified in 2002, it was subsequently modified to limit the class, and focus solely on devaluation of property and was certified on appeal on November 18, 2005. A timeline of the case has been written from the point of view of the plaintiffs. On July 6, 2010, the
Ontario Supreme Court sided with the residents and awarded more than 7,000 households in Port Colborne a total of $36 million. Households in the Rodney Street area, in the shadow of the nickel refinery, were each awarded $23,000 while those living on the east and west sides of Port Colborne were each awarded $9,000 and $2,500 respectively. Vale appealed the ruling to the
Ontario Court of Appeal, which found in 2010 that the plaintiff had not provided sufficient evidence of economic harm, raising the legal burden of proof but not invalidating
Rylands v Fletcher as precedent law. In April 2012 the
Supreme Court of Canada sided with Vale and denied the residents the awarded compensation. Court costs in the amount of CAD$1,766,000 were awarded the defendant by Henderson, J. ==Geography==