Doors Open Huronia (Victoria Harbour Range Light)

The Victoria Harbour range light was built in 1910, and sits on a hill overlooking the town.

It, and several other lighthouses in the area, were built to help guide ships into the Port McNicoll grain elevator. (Red dots on this map indicate the range lights in the area back then)

Each evening, a light-keeper would climb the path to clean the glass and light the kerosene lantern at the top of the wooden structure.  There were only 4 light-keepers over the course of the 60+ years the range light was kept in operation.

The range light in Victoria Harbour is the only one of the area's lighthouses still standing. It was sold to the township for $1, and discussion about restoring it is currently underway. There are a number of issues to consider - among them, vandalism (the windows have had to be boarded up due to repeated breakage), and whether it is worth doing at all unless the trees which pretty much block it's visibility from all sides can be thinned/removed.

There wasn't actually all that much to see here - he wouldn't let me go up to the top to take pictures even though I fix his computer for him (one of my customers was the site volunteer). But it was interesting...and I would like to see it restored.