The main attraction here is an imposing white monument called Peace Arch, built in the 1920s, and White Rock Crescent Beach, opened to tourists from Vancouver and New Westminster in the early 20th century. The modern history of White Rock is directly connected to the Great Northern Line, a rail link between British Columbia and Washington state that runs along the shores of Semiahmoo Bay across the border. Originally part of the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.C.), it began to feel isolated from the then Surrey district and other places where development was concentrated in the 1950s.

It is known that the large white rocks on the beach are glacial deposits from thousands of years ago and are now kept white by regular white layers of paint. The rocks were named because they were covered with large quantities of bird guano, but here you can look back along the coast and identify the rocks from which the town takes its name.