Community Profile

The Municipality of Central Huron was formed in 2001 with the amalgamation of Goderich Township, Hullett Township and the Town of Clinton. Our population then was listed as 7,806, with a land area of 447.6 square km, which made us the 3rd largest municipality in Huron County by both population and land area.

Our economy is largely agriculture based, with the Town of Clinton as our largest urban site. The hamlets of Holmesville, Londesborough, and Auburn also include small business operations. There are a variety of resident areas within Central Huron, including the VLA community outside Goderich and numerous trailer parks. Clinton, the commercial hub of Central Huron, with an active business core, is located at the crossroads of Highways 4 and 8.

We are proud of the strength of our agricultural industry, including dairy, cash crop, poultry and beef farms. In 2015, Central Huron was shown to have the second largest number of farms in Huron County – 398 – and Huron County is known as one of the most productive agricultural areas in the province. With an excellent public hospital, a medical clinic, public library, three financial institutions and six schools in the Town of Clinton, we have services for people of all ages. Recreational and entertainment opportunities abound with our parks, arena, ice rink, numerous walking, hiking and skiing trails, the OLG Slots and Raceway in Clinton, the Sloman School on Wheels museum, two golf courses and several camp and trailer parks. As well as an active retail core in Clinton, we have an industrial park with several sites available for development.

Our community is a dynamic, healthy, safe and prosperous community for people of all ages to live, work and play.

Unique highlights of our community

Historic

  • Clinton was known as “Canada's Home of Radar”, and this has been commemorated by the display on the main street of a huge communications radar antenna which was used at the RCAF Station (a training centre) outside Clinton during World War II.
  • We are proud of the historic architecture of our Town Hall and our Carnegie Library in Clinton.
  • A plaque outside the Sloman School on Wheels Museum located in Clinton identifies it as one of seven railway car schools to educate children in remote Northern Ontario communities. Fred Sloman, a Clinton native, and his family staffed the school from 1926 for 39 years, traveling the CNR line from Sudbury north-west.
  • Clinton was home to a renowned author, Alice Munro. A Canadian short story writer and 2013 Nobel Prize winner, Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories. Munro's fiction is most often set in her native Huron County in southwestern Ontario. Her stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose style and Munro's writing has established her as “one of our greatest contemporary writers of fiction”.
  • We are also proud of our connection with the world renowned creator of Mickey Mouse – Walt Disney. The Disney family originally emigrated to Holmesville, near Clinton, where they had the first grist mill in the area in 1832. Although Walt Disney himself was born in the USA, he returned in the 1950s to Holmesville to visit his ancestors' burial site. One of our residents, Tom Penhale, was commissioned by the Disney Corporation in the 1980s to build an 8-horse-hitch wagon which has since been used in Disney parades.

Recreational

  • The REACH Centre, featuring an equine barn that can match the size and quality of the Royal Winter Fair facility, also serves as an agricultural education centre.
  • Our recreation complex in Clinton includes a community centre with a YMCA arena and, close by, is the Clinton Raceway offering harness racing, year round OLG slots, a cafe and a picnic area.
  • We have two 18-hole golf courses, with Woodlands Links classified as an Audubon and championship Links course.
  • With kilometers of Huron County lakefront, we have some public access areas, along with several camp and trailer sites, both seasonal and year round.
  • The Hullett Provincial Wildlife Area is a major wetland habitat consisting of 2,200 hectares of mixed terrain, of which almost 40% is open water, marsh or swamp which provides a habitat for resident and migrant birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants.
  • Numerous trails are available for walking, hiking and many are groomed for cross country skiing. Of particular note are the Hullett Wildlife area, the Naftel's Creek Conservation Area south of Goderich and the Lobb Loop, near Clinton.
  • The Windmill Lake Wake & Eco Park is a relatively new recreational addition, featuring able wakeboarding as well as stand up paddle boarding, hiking, swimming, kayaking, canoeing and much more!

Please feel free to review our census information provided by Statistics Canada.