Beachburg (pronounced historically as “Beachburgh”) is the central village of former Westmeath Township—now part of Whitewater Region in Renfrew County. It was founded around 1835 when United Empire Loyalist David Beach received a 1,000‑acre Crown grant beside a stream, planting the seeds for a cluster of early economic activity—gristmill, sawmill, tannery, hotel, and post office.

By the late 1850s, the village held its first fair and featured multiple mills, general stores, carriage shops, and hotels—revealing a self-sustaining pioneer community built along Water Street’s concession frontage.

The arrival of the Canadian Northern / Canadian National Beachburg Subdivision railway in 1915 further shaped both its structure and cadastral layout—creating station easements, grain elevator lots, and railroad corridors that remain visible in current parcel maps.

Fires destroyed most of the village in 1853 and again in 1931, yet each rebuilding cycle reasserted the original concession-grid fabric, with school, creamery, and general store structures occupying Crown-divided lots fronting road allowances .

From the perspective of an Ontario land surveyor, Beachburg exemplifies layered cadastral evolution:

• Mid‑19th-century Crown surveys set out concession and sideroad lines that still define lot fronts.

• Pioneer mills and fairs utilized mill-site easements and fairground parcels that remain in current title plans.

• Railway introduction in 1915 added a long-running transportation easement—the CN Beachburg Sub—whose legal alignment affects lot layouts even long after service ceased.

Today, surveying in Beachburg involves reconciling these historic layers—from original Crown lots, industrial parcel grants, to rail corridors—offering a rich terrain for land-bound analysis and legal clarity.