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Since its construction in 1829, New Brunswick Canada’s Head Harbour Lighthouse Station has been shining its beacon from the northernmost point of Campobello Island over the intersection of Passamaquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy.
From its construction until the 1980s, it had been staffed by a series of lighthouse keepers and later assistant keepers who lived in the attached keeper’s house. In keeping with the trend of modernization, the Canadian Coast Guard fully automated the light and the foghorn, rendering the light keeper position obsolete. This left the nearly 150-year-old lighthouse in a state of flux. Although the light and foghorn still operated, the boarded up and virtually abandoned structures of the lightstation began to deteriorate.
Since the day it was built, the picturesque lighthouse station has been an icon for the coastal communities of New Brunswick, and its image has appeared on countless calendars, post cards, and magazine covers. And even though the lightstation had been given both Federal and Provincial Heritage status, none of those could guarantee its actual survival.
By 2006, the lightstation had become a shadow of its former self. The gleaming white and red exterior, marked with a distinctive red cross, had become significantly weathered by time, the elements, and by trees that had grown up obscuring the view of the lightstation from land.
Finally, a group of islanders stepped in to lead the charge, and they formed the non-profit Friends of Head Harbour Lightstation (FHHL) in order not only to stop the rapid state of deterioration, but to hopefully save the lighthouse. When the lightstation came into divestiture through the Coast Guard and after agonizing about the responsibility and allowing the property to go through the complicated divestiture program, in 2006 the FHHL were able to purchase the property and buildings from the Coast Guard for the sum of one dollar. They would soon find out that it was to be one hard spent dollar.
That same year, FHHL board members Deanna Baldwin, Joyce Morrell, Janice Meiners, Evelyn Bowden and Bob Hooper, as well as summer residents and board members Lou and Linda Brown, started to work on the exterior of the buildings. All were inspired by a sincere dedication to the lighthouse, and to the cause of preserving it. This soon involved hiring an architect who decided what was needed and how it was to be accomplished. With this information, they could go to the Heritage component of both Federal and Provincial governments to see how to fund the restoration.
In the meantime, work began in earnest —work that involved a lot of hands-on projects for the volunteers—who managed to paint all the buildings, including the interior of the keeper’s house, rebuilding the landing platform as a necessary step to further more intensive work. All the early work meant that everything used needed to come out over the rocky and difficult land route by foot or over the water route in a small rubber boat. All of the trash had to go back the same way. This was no small task.
While the task was daunting, they were not without outside help. Members of the Chesapeake chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society had met members of Friends of Head Harbour Lightstation on a regular lighthouse visiting trip and had committed to coming over to support the restoration. They brought with them incredible expertise in restoring lighthouses, and volunteered hands to contribute to the mammoth task at hand. Another supporter was a retired Princeton engineering professor who contributed his expertise in rebuilding the new water system for the lightstation.
As multiple members described, they either would go over every day when the tide was low and stay out for the 4-hour tide cycle, or do eight hours working away. Deanna Baldwin, another member from the early days, recalls the work as “a lot of scraping,” as in scraping the chipped and cracking paint away to make way for new. Members of the organization worked at it for years and remember parties that were held to celebrate milestones–like 600 hours of volunteer work. The seawall of more than 200 feet was a masterpiece of ingenuity and effort, and involved, at times, a dozen hired islanders. Once the scraping, painting and rebuilding was done, and the light was in good enough shape to be seen by the public, FHHL began running tours, inviting the community and visitors out to see the lighthouse returning to its former glory.
FHHL also hires five local students each year who give tours and watch over the 20,000 people who come to the headland to see the lighthouse. About half of them walk over at low tide to visit the lightstation. This activity funds the basic daily costs of keeping the lightstation available for the public to visit, but it does not fund major repair. They still have the top of the tower`s lantern to restore. This is becoming crucial because it is iron and is deteriorating.
Touring the lightstation complex is equivalent to a museum experience, but better, because it is a living, working light in a magnificent marine setting.
The longer this beautiful lightstation is kept alive, the more valuable and rare it will become to future generations. The Friends of Head Harbour Lightstation are to be congratulated for a job well done.
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2019 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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