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North America’s oldest standing operational lighthouse is in danger. The danger may not be imminent, but that could change very quickly. Although Canada’s Sambro Island Lighthouse, built in 1760 on an island at the entrance to Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, was declared a National Historic Site, that does not guarantee the lighthouse will be saved.
Although Sambro Island Lighthouse, like nearly 1,000 other Canadian lighthouses, was declared as excess property, making it easier for local communities and nonprofits to apply for ownership of them, this does not mean that the local group will be able to raise the enormous sums of money that it will take to restore and maintain the historic site.
As of a few months ago, only 112 plans for saving a lighthouse or getting ownership of one have been submitted for the 970 lighthouses on the excess list. Although more applications are likely to be submitted by the government’s deadline, many lighthouses are likely to fall by the wayside - and some are likely to be eventually lost.
Although a local group wants to save the Sambro Island Lighthouse they don’t see how a small group can effectively maintain such a large tower and its various out buildings on an island. In 2008, at a cost of $80,000, the tower was painted by the Canadian Coast Guard, but they used a helicopter to bring out supplies and scaffolding. Proving how susceptible the light station is, in 2008 the principle keeper’s house at Sambro Island was destroyed by an arsonist’s fire.
According to Canadian Press reports, some of the other more historic lighthouses such as Cape Sable Light in Nova Scotia; Cape Race in Newfoundland, where the distress messages from the Titanic were first relayed to the world; and the Race Rocks Light in British Columbia are also endangered. One of the Imperial Towers, the Nottawasaga Island Lighthouse in Ontario’s Georgian Bay may already be beyond repair, and the condition of the world famous Gannet Rock Lighthouse that was, for all practical purposes, condemned a few years ago is questionable.
Many Canadians who support lighthouse preservation say that many lighthouses will not be saved unless their federal government comes up with some money to help. But that scenario is unlikely, especially with the large number of historic lighthouses that are in remote locations or only supported by a small population base that can be drawn from to save and maintain them.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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