Wallaceburg, Ontario became a village in 1875 and a town in 1896. In 1997 Wallaceburg was amalgamated into the municipality of Chatham-Kent (2006 pop. 108,177).
The Chippewa surrendered their lands in the area by treaty in 1796. The first European presence in this area was Lord Selkirk's nearby Baldoon Settlement, founded in 1804. It failed because of its poor location, but some of the settlers relocated here at the forks of the Sydenham River. Laughlan McDougall, the first arrival, built a trading post and tavern at "The Forks" in the early 1820s. When a post office opened in 1837, the hamlet was named Wallaceburg after Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace. In subsequent decades the community prospered as the hub of the area's lumber trade and as a market town and industrial centre. 
The photo shown was taken at the Wallaceburg Antique Motor Boat Outing, an event held since 1988 that attracts about 30,000 to see antique boats, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, fire trucks, tractors, and other various antique vehicles.
St James Anglican Church, Wallaceburg, Ontario is the town's oldest church, founded in 1864.