Nonetheless, the three entities "enjoy a large degree of collaboration and work together to grow the region as a leading location for industry and people".

In 1839, the Canada Company sent a surveyor to Blanshard Township in the Huron Tract to choose a site for a town on the Thames River which would later be named St. Marys.

The first settlers arrived at the junction of the Thames River and Trout Creek, southwest of Stratford in the early 1840s, attracted by the area's natural resources.

At the new town site, the Thames River cascaded over a series of limestone ledges, providing the power to run the first pioneer mills and giving the community an early nickname: Little Falls.

[4] The arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway in the late 1850s increased the growth; the community became a centre for milling, grain-trading and the manufacture of agriculture-related products.

[5] A plaque erected by the Government of Ontario provides additional details about the early days: When opening Blanshard Township for settlement in 1839, the Canada Company made an arrangement with Thomas Ingersoll, a brother of Laura Secord, to build mills at "the Little Falls" of the Thames.

The building of railways, 1857–60, stimulated development and in 1864, when St. Marys became a town, it was already the centre of lumber and limestone quarry industries and the adjacent prosperous agricultural region.

During their time in St. Marys the company made many such items as hammer handles, hockey sticks and baseball bats.

After many ownership changes over the years, by 1988 the now-Cooper bat had risen to #2 in the National Baseball League after Louisville Slugger.

[10] The Municipal Heritage Committee helps in preserving the historic stone buildings and publishes a useful brochure online, with interesting facts about those in the downtown area.

In 2012, the Re-Purposing of the Sarnia Bridge to part of the Grand Trunk Trail was inducted to the North America Railway Hall of Fame.

There are thousands of artifacts on display in the museum "including Fergie Jenkins and Larry Walker memorabilia, artifacts from Canada's two major league franchises, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Montreal Expos, a Babe Ruth collection, a large display on all the current MLB Canadians and a tribute to the Canadian women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Over 900 events are held on site each year, including Major League Baseball tryout camps and World Junior Championship exhibition games.

Prior Lincoln team members who played in the NHL include Terry Crisp, Don Luce, Lonnie Loach, Mark Bell, Steve Shields, J. P. Parisé and Bob Boughner.