The City of Sarnia is a municipality of approximately 70,000 people situated on the south shore of Lake Huron at the headwaters of the St. Clair River. The city is noted for its breathtaking sky blue water and beautiful waterfront parks. Although we are a small city in size, we offer big city amenities to our visitors. Be sure to check out other sections of our site to see for yourself the collage of activities that are available. Sarnia is also one of Ontario's principal gateways to the United States and is located across the St. Clair River from the state of Michigan, just an hour northeast of Detroit. Our modern rail tunnel and twin Bluewater Bridges form an important transportation system for one of the busiest commercial border crossings in the world. Sarnia's proximity to the United States provides an international flavour to our city and provides our visitors with the unique opportunity to enjoy the amenities of both countries. While Sarnia is a relatively small city in population, there are well over one hundred square miles of land within our boundaries. With Lake Huron and its beautiful blue water to our north, the St. Clair River with its constant flow of commercial shipping to our west, world class industrial to our south and vast expanses of fertile farmland to our east, Sarnia encompasses an impressive array of mixed land uses within its boundaries. Sarnia was originally called The Rapids but was renamed Port Sarnia in 1836 by Sir John Colborne. Port Sarnia became the Town of Sarnia on June 19, 1856 and was elevated to city status on May 7, 1914. On January 1, 1991, the City of Sarnia and the Town of Clearwater (formerly the Township of Sarnia) amalgamated to create the city as we know it today. Sarnia is a vibrant and healthy city, experiencing unprecedented growth in the commercial and sports and leisure sectors. In addition, extensive development of new residential subdivisions, new business parks and major improvements to our busy highway corridors are in the planning stages for short term implementation. Sarnia is a city that is proud of its past, happy with its present and excitedly anticipating and planning for our future.