“ Belle River is a top secret of Ontario , probably Canada .”
Forget the town ’ s name for just a second . If you were boating with French explorers down Lake St . Clair in the early 19th century and then suddenly flashed forward 150 years as a jet-skier , how different would your opinion be of your surroundings ? Probably just the language you said it in . “ Belle River .” Translated from French , the name means “ Beautiful River ,” a title attached to a town that has continued to stay the same no matter how much it has changed over the years . Comfortable with its status as an unassuming community east of Windsor , it has been quietly building up an impressive enough reputation to compete with its neighbour to the West … if it wanted to , that is .
“ Belle River is a top secret of Ontario , probably Canada ,” said Jim Ghanam , a resident of the town for more than 70 years . “ We always knew it was the greatest place to live in all of Canada and now we ’ re over 35,000 people … the secret ’ s out now and we ’ re exploding .”
Along with helping build the main road , Notre Dame Street as well as building the town ’ s first arena , Ghanam saw a town “ grow into something that stayed the same .” Acting as a bedroom community for Windsor , its small town feel just might be its greatest strength .
As per regional tradition , the illegal entrepreneurs were the first to fully utilize the area ’ s geographic potential . Growth really happened on the backs of men like resident Blaze Diesbourg , whose travels across the border during prohibition helped put Belle River on the map . Witnessing the terrific success stories of men like Hiram Walker , Diesbourg added his Model A to the highway of illegal booze flowing across the frozen Detroit River and Lake St . Clair . Owning one of the biggest docks in Essex County , Belle River received alcohol
exported from northern Canada . Diesbourg , or “ King Canada ,” boated and eventually even flew the drink onto American soil , an asset that got him recognition from Al Capone himself . Long after prohibition ended , Diesbourg continued to live in his hometown , undisturbed in domestic tranquility .
That access to the lake continues to be an asset to the community . A consistently sold out boating dock and the recent decision to purchase more land to the west to enlarge the current beach space reaffirm the town ’ s status as a summer hotspot . Lake St Clair ’ s status as one of the shallowest of the area lakes makes jet-ski racing an ideal sport . One of the stops for the North American Circuit , the normal turnout for the event held alongside its annual Sunsplash Festival is over 3,000 , with people coming from all over Canada and the U . S . to witness the spectacle .
It might be easy then to label Belle River as a beachfront community and only that . But that wouldn ’ t take into account its recently built Atlas Tube Centre , boasting three hockey rinks , a 200m walking track , double gymnasiums ,
Above : the annual jet-ski racing in conjunction with July ’ s Sunsplash Festival is a popular draw for visitors and residents Left : Belle River ’ s dock is consistently full