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PortandTerminal.com, January 15, 2021
GRAND MANAN ISLAND, NEW BRUNSWICK – What little remains of Grand Harbour Lighthouse lies on Ross Island, just off of Grand Manan Island in Canada’s Bay of Fundy.
Built from wood in 1873, the lighthouse consisted of a square, wooden tower, thirty-two-feet-high, with an attached keeper’s dwelling. A fixed-white, catoptric light was originally shown at a focal plane of forty feet and could be seen in clear weather at a distance of eleven miles.
Harry McDowell was the longest-serving keeper at Grand Harbour Lighthouse. He and his wife Sadie arrived in 1914 and left in 1948 after raising nine children at the lighthouse. To attend school the children walked to neighbouring Grand Manan Island. For most of the day, their home was located on an island. For a few hours though, at each low tide, you can easily cross by foot which would have allowed the children to cross over.
In 1963, the Grand Harbour Lighthouse was decommissioned and things gradually went from bad to worse.
A powerful storm on February 2, 1976, known as the Groundhog Day Gale, just happened to coincide with abnormally high tides. The high tides coupled with strong winds wreaked havoc on coastal communities in southern New Brunswick, and Grand Harbour Lighthouse received significant damage.
In May 1999, Lighthouse Digest declared the neglected Grand Harbour Lighthouse to be “North America’s Most Endangered Lighthouse” and launched a fundraising campaign through the American Lighthouse Foundation to save the structure. Nothing came of it. The lighthouse was completely destroyed by another gale in November 2013.
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