Great Lakes Lighthouses
First Great Lakes Lighthouse on Lake Huron in 1825
Great Lakes lighthouses were built in quick succession to meet the safety needs of the growing maritime traffic on the Great Lakes.
In the early days of settlement around the mid- to northern Great Lakes region the arrival of spring was eagerly awaited by the pioneers who called this region home.
The lack of effective overland routes between the southern communities of the province of Ontario and the pioneer settlements such as Owen Sound around the shores of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron virtually left the settlers isolated for large parts of the winter months.
By early spring, the pioneer’s larders were close to being empty and the storerooms of the commercial establishments were suffering from a similar fate.
However, to replenish the supplies in the pioneer homes and communities along the Great Lakes shoreline, was not easy and in fact it could be quite dangerous for the ships who braved the early spring waterways.
Around the Bruce Peninsula the rugged shoreline made finding a safe haven as treacherous as the swelling waters, winds and torrential rains and late season snowstorms from which they were trying to escape. This often led to increasing the terrible toll of sailor’s lives being taken in the early months of sailing on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
As the population of the region increased, so did the maritime traffic. To help alleviate the dangers to the sailors and their ships, lighthouses were erected along both the Huron and Georgian Bay shorelines.
The first lighthouses on Lake Huron were erected on the American shoreline. The first, the Fort Gratiot Light, at the entrance to the St. Clair River went into service in 1825. By 1840, there were four American lighthouses on Lake Huron. The first Canadian lighthouse went into service in 1847 at Goderich.
The arrival of rail connections to the shores of Georgian Bay in the 1850s and the opening of the canal at Sault Ste. Marie in 1855 increased maritime traffic dramatically. This signaled the need for more lighthouses, especially in the Tobermory area at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.
In 1859 the Cove Island lighthouse went into service to help guide vessels safely through the treacherous waters that united Lake Huron and Georgian Bay at the top of the Bruce Peninsula. To further enhance safe sailing in the area, a light was installed on Lonely Island in 1870. Later, in 1897, another lighthouse was built on Flowerpot Island.
The Cove Island light was one of six completed during the rush to improve navigation on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay in the 1850s. The other five lights were located at Point Clarke near Kincardine; Chantry Island at Southampton; Griffith Island at the entrance to Colpoy’s Bay and the port of Wiarton. Two other lights were built on Georgian Bay at Christian Island and Nottawasaga Island.
These six lighthouses were erected simultaneously by John Brown a contractor from Thorold, Ontario. They were simple structures. But, due to their remote locations not easily built.
The decision to build these Great Lakes lighthouses was not only beneficial to navigation, but was also a boon to local entrepreneurs and workers. Quarries were opened at Owen Sound, Main Station Island and Inverhuron. The stone for the base courses and exterior facing of the lighthouses came from the Owen Sound quarry and cement was shipped in from Thorold.
All in all, the construction of these navigation aids probably saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives and countless ships. Today, the remnants of these sentinels of safety can be seen at many points around the Great Lakes, one can only wonder about the tales they could tell, if only they could talk!
Much of the information used in this article came from newspaper articles from the Grey and Bruce County area and A Maritime History of Georgian Bay by Larry Turner, Paul White and others.
