Our history
Sand Castle Beach was purchased by Tom Forbes in the early 1960s. He bought the property from Mrs. King, whose husband had just died and she decided to sell the land. Forbes began to develop the land in 1963 with the company Sand Castle Estate Limited. At this time there were no services to the area as it was an isolated community. It was a major undertaking as the area was covered in juniper bushes, rocks, poison ivy and trees and he had to truck in sand to create the beach. The 17th concession at the time was a one lane dirt road, one would have to honk going down the hill to ensure that no one would drive up the other side. At the bottom of the 17th was a little store owned by Mrs. Wilson.
The Forbes’ cottage was built in 1967 by a local Lafontaine builder. Tom began to sell lots, asking $1,200 for waterfront lots and $800 for the back lots. Different ethnic groups came to Sand Castle including large groups of Italians, Germans, Poles, Ukrainians and Greeks to name a few. The Sand Castle Community Association was created to own, pay the taxes and maintain the parkland.
The name Sand Castle comes from the movement of the beach sand caused by the wind blowing around Gidley Point which would make the beach look like different sandcastles every season.