Starting in the ‘80s light towers on the Great Lakes gradually slipped out of human hands into automation. Peering down from edge of the dome roof, 12 gargoyles in the form of lions allow condensation to escape from their waterspout mouths. Surrounding the dome protrudes a one-metre catwalk with a red cast-iron hand railing. Just as all keepers had done for 130 years before him, Jack polished the prisms.
Six prisms – each 5cm thick – magnify the light so it can be seen anywhere from 5km to 80km away, depending on the weather. An underwater electrical cable laid in 1971 now powers the 500-watt mercury-vapor bulb and rotates the prisms. The original equipment from 1858 remains here today. Here, 156 years ago, a work crew from Paris, France had installed the cast-iron frame, paneled with twelve panes of glass capped with a copper dome and ventilator for the smoke and heat given off from the oil-fired Argand lamp, all imported from France. The resulting tender whitefish (out of Georgian Bay less than a hour) is one of the most memorable meals of my life.Īs we climbed the 101 steps, Jack stopped at the tower’s highest window to point out where a workman had scratched his initials and date in the wet mortar behind which stood a corked blue bottle filled with an unknown liquid thought to be an early fire retardant.Ī few more steps up a narrow staircase brought us to the lamp room. Over a crackling fire behind the light keeper’s house he melted a pound of Crisco in a huge cast iron fry pan. By the time our tent was up he had returned with several fresh whitefish and we watched in amazement as Jack (a former commercial fisherman), filleted the fish in less time than it takes to read this sentence. Setting up our tent, we watched as Jack took a red steel skiff out to meet a passing fish tug. Although we had only just met him and his wife Tillie, they insisted we join them for a family dinner. Jack Vaughan’s warm personality was immediately apparent as he greeted us, hands on the hip at the Cove Island dock. We camped at the base of the tower so I could capture the first light of morning. It was the early days of Fathom Five National Marine Park (Cove Island is inside the park boundary) and the Friends of Fathom Five has asked me to photograph the light tower for use on a poster. One of six Imperial towers from Point Clark around the Bruce Peninsula to Christian Island, Cove Island was the first of the lighthouses to be lit on October 30, 1858. Whenever I sail past Cove Island lighthouse – about 5km off Tobermory and the final beacon the Chi-Cheemaun ferry passes before heading into open water – my memories go back 25 years when I spent two days photographing Jack Vaughan, the last lighthouse keeper on Georgian Bay.īuilt in 1856 on the northern Gig Point, Cove Island’s 24-metre tower guards the main shipping channel into Georgian Bay – one of the most hazardous passages on Lake Huron.
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