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Chris Mills is originally from Ontario but has lived in Nova Scotia, Canada for 37 of his 39 years. He became a lighthouse keeper at the age of 24, and worked for the next nine years at 11 lighthouses on both coasts of Canada.
Today, Chris serves as second vice president and a founding member of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society. He also produces the group’s quarterly journal, The Lightkeeper.
Chris also gives occasional presentations where he shares his experiences as being a lighthouse keeper. He has been recording the oral history of light keepers and their families and has so far recorded an amazing 51 interviews and transcribed more than 330,000 words.
Chris lives today in Ketch Harbour Nova Scotia and now works part time as a deckhand on a Canadian Coast Guard lifeboat. He’s also worked as a broadcast journalist and in 1992 he authored the book, Vanishing Lights.
Chris says the he “feels” extraordinarily privileged to have been a lightkeeper and to have experienced that special way of life. He went on to say, “Today, some of our lights are in danger of being physically lost, along with the stories of the people who kept the lights. It is my self-imposed ‘mission’ to preserve as much of this as possible.”
Congratulations to Chris Mills for being picked as the recipient of the first Lighthouse Digest Beacon of
Light Award. His award is on its way to him.
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This story appeared in the
December 2004 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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