Saturday, December 12, 2020

Lighthouse of the Week, November 29 - December 5, 2020: Gull Harbour, Manitoba, Canada

 

This particular Lighthouse of the Week was found when I was looking for bodies of water other than oceans and seas that have lighthouses on them.  There are bays, rivers, and lakes, of course.  So I was looking to see if there are lighthouses on Canada's Hudson Bay, and there are, but they aren't that interesting.  

However, this led to lighthouses in Manitoba, and because Manitoba has big lakes, there are lighthouses on the big lakes, notably Lake Winnipeg.   So this is a two-for-one posting, because Gull Harbour has both an old and new lighthouse.  The new one is one of the metal tower kind, and the old, recently renovated one is quite small and cute.   You'll see what I mean in a moment.

But first, specs and history.  All of the below is excerpted from the Lighthouse Directory, and slightly edited.

The old Gull Harbour light:  Established 1898, and inactive since 1926. An 8 m (27 ft) square pyramidal wood tower, painted white with red trim. The Gull Harbour lighthouses mark the Lake Winnipeg Narrows, a passage between Black Island and Hecla Island. Located at the end of a long sand spit at the northeastern end of Hecla Island.

The new Gull Harbour light: Established 1926 -- focal plane 27.5 m (90 ft); white flash every 4 seconds. It's a 23.5 m (77 ft) square pyramidal steel skeletal tower with enclosed lantern, gallery, and wood watchroom. Lantern and skeletal tower painted red, watchroom white. This substantial lighthouse is visible for at least 10 miles up and down the lake. 

Where, exactly?  Click here.  I zoomed the map way out so it's possible to see where the lighthouse is in relation to the whole of big Lake Winnipeg.

I'll finish with the pictures.  The first one shows just the old lighthouse, in its renovated state.








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