Remembering the light
Fourteen years after fire, local teacher sharing story of lighthouse.
Fergie MacKay was taking his granddaughter on a tour of Pictou County beaches. While she played on the shore near the Harbour Light Campground, MacKay snapped a photo of her with the Pictou Bar Lighthouse in the background.
That was on June 30, 2004. “Five days later, we had the fire,” says MacKay, who will be at the Natural History Museum in Halifax on Nov. 15 to give a talk about the iconic Pictou landmark.
The cause of the fire is unknown, but the result was the complete destruction of the 101-year-old lighthouse at the tip of Pictou Harbour.
“It was just a crumbled piece of molten glass,” says MacKay. “It was a real shock, and then you know that it’s not going to be replaced.”
‘It was unique’
Before GPS and ocean mapping technology replaced them, lighthouses played an essential role in maritime safety. Light was generated by oil lamps and reflectors projected it through the dark to highlight hazards hidden near the shore.
The sandbar at the mouth of the harbour was dangerous for ships passing through to Pictou County, so the first lighthouse built in 1834 was vital to shipping. The original Pictou Bar Lighthouse was also destroyed by fire in 1903 and was rebuilt immediately, serving the community right up until July 5, 2004, just five days after the lobster fishing season had ended.
MacKay, a retired history teacher, grew up in Pictou Landing where the old lighthouse was as much a part of the scenery as the 1.5-kilometre sandbar it was built on.
“We used to call it Mile Beach. You’d just park with friends and go for a walk up the beach,” he says. “It was a landmark for almost anybody in Pictou Landing. It was unique.”
‘I’m fascinated with it’
MacKay’s research has taken him to the archives in Halifax and to the government archives in Ottawa, where he’d go during visits to his son who lives in the area. Over time, each receipt, document, photograph and story has added to his collection of material, which he has spent more than 10 years gathering.
“There’s a good amount of collected material here,” says MacKay, as he rifles through about 100 pages worth of collected documents.
Outside of the archives, MacKay’s research has also put him in touch with the people whose livelihoods revolved around keeping the light going on the sandbar. MacKay says that these interviews have helped to put human faces on the facts and figures.
“So, if you get into an era of this particular lighthouse keeper, then you could ask things like, ‘how they’d spend the day? What was Christmas like? What did you do to keep the light going at night?’”
Besides the lighthouse, which was painted with a red and white stripe running vertically down the 50-foot structure, there was also a house built there for the lighthouse keeper and his family.
“They lived there, gathered wood on the beach, and were friendly with the boats coming and going, you know, waving and things like that.”
MacKay says he would eventually like to take everything that he has pieced together and turn it into something fit for people’s bookshelves. But, for now, he’s excited to go back to teaching on Nov. 15 and share his passion for the light.
“I’m fascinated with it, and it should be shared,” he says. “I’m pleased and honoured to do that.”