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A historic lighthouse located on a remote island off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia may soon go dark permanently.
The Seal Island lighthouse, one of the oldest wooden lighthouses still operating in North America, is set to be decommissioned by the Canadian Coast Guard later this summer in favour of a new 21-metre steel tower now under construction.
“The Coast Guard and the government in general do not want to maintain these large, costly, far-flung structures,” said former lighthouse keeper Chris Mills in an interview with Information Morning Nova Scotia this week.
“They require regular upkeep and the Coast Guard is finding it much easier, and understandably so, to replace these towers with skeleton structures that require little to no maintenance, usually topped with an LED beacon.”
But advocates like Mills, many of whom are part of a grassroots effort that began in earnest in 2022 to preserve the lighthouse, say allowing the lighthouse to deteriorate further would be an insult to its historical and cultural significance as a site of interest for tourists and a beacon in the community.
“In recent years, the tower has been falling on hard times,” said Mills, who worked there in the 1990s before the structure shifted to being fully automated. “It’s received little to no maintenance other than a paint job a few years ago.”
In 2024, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans told CBC News the lighthouse required extensive repairs.
The lighthouse was given heritage status by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in 2009, but according to Mills, the coast guard has not taken this seriously.
“They really do have a role in facilitating these structures, remaining in service as much as possible, and remaining an important part of our cultural landscape, to say nothing of the purpose that they still serve.”
Lighthouse saved many lives
The lighthouse was built in 1831 after a spirited campaign of advocacy from Mary Hitchens, a Barrington woman who met her husband after he survived a shipwreck on nearby Cape Sable Island.
Since then, it has been instrumental in saving the lives of many at sea.
“They actually physically saved people from dying on the island, people who formerly would have died when they were shipwrecked in this very, very dangerous location 18 miles west of Cape Sable Island,” said Mills.
Boarding it up after it closes, and leaving it as is, would be akin to “demolition by neglect,” he said.
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“As you know, as someone who lives and works in Nova Scotia, tourism relies heavily on the icon of the lighthouse. It’s a part of who we are here,” said Mills. “We have 160 lighthouses in Nova Scotia, the most of any province, and yet we have the worst maintained lighthouses in the entire country.”
Group wants to take over
With construction already in progress on the steel tower that will replace the lighthouse, the best opportunity to save it may come from a community group taking over operations.
According to Seal Island Lighthouse Preservation Society president Marc Flemming, his group wants to do this, but hasn’t had much luck so far.
He said the last time the society made an inquiry, they were told that as long as the lighthouse was being used as an active navigation aid, they couldn’t assume control.
When the new tower goes online, however, that could change.
“We’re hoping that we can still take over the property and become stewards,” Flemming said.
In a statement to CBC News, the Canadian Coast Guard said the new tower is expected to be operational by the end of August, and along with the Department of National Defence, they “have not made any decisions about future potential ownership of the existing lighthouse.”
“For now, it will be fenced off to ensure public safety,” the statement read.
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