It is located on the northeastern shore of St. Joseph Island in the North Channel of Lake Huron, approximately 60 kilometres from Sault Ste.

By the 1860s, fourteen families had settled in the area, including the Trainors, Rousseaus, Gordons, Bishops and Desjardins.

J.C. Cooper was a wagon maker, and T. Steinburg was the blacksmith, who operated out of the white concrete building still standing today on Hilton Road.

The small building, barely measuring 20' by 20', in fact housed the Hilton Beach Library for several years in the 1920s.

Several families from Michigan, Ohio, California, Ontario, Washington, Massachusetts and Florida have been spending their summers in and around Hilton Beach since the 1910s.

[citation needed] The MS Norgoma, a package freighter and passenger ferry, called on Hilton Beach on Wednesdays until 1963.

[citation needed] The village's location on Lake Huron makes it a very popular boating destination.

The Hilton Beach Marina has over 180 slips (approximately one for every resident in the town) and is very popular in the summer.