The first settler is reported to have been John Eldridge, who built a cottage nearby in 1877. Other settlers followed and the village continued to grow with a boarding house and then a store. In the 1900s a large sawmill below the falls on the Sauble River employed 40 people. Initially, development was to the south and later to the east of the river. By the early decades of the 1900s, Sauble Beach was attracting visitors because of its gorgeous beaches; this grew as an increasing number of families acquired automobiles.