When Captain Thomas Stanton launched the steamboat PIONEER on Sparrow Lake, Ontario, in 1875, he saw the potential of a lake whose sunsets inspired the Ojibwa name: Lake of the Big Sun Fire. From his initial struggles to build a home and bring roads and schools to the pioneer settlement, he and his family establised an enterprise that included a hotel, general store, steamboat line and sawmill. Today the sixth generation of Stantons continues the tradition of hospitality that endears Port Stanton to those who call it their second home.