The Langara Point Lighthouse is a manned lighthouse located atop a scenic bluff on the northwest corner of

Langara Island Langara Island, known as Kiis Gwaii to the Haida (Haida: ''Ḵ'íis Gwáayaay''), is the northernmost island of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. The island is approximately in size. It is located approximately south of Alaska. Histo ...

. It is one of only two lighthouses in

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hec ...

– the other being at Cape St. James (now an automated station), at the southern tip of the islands. Both were built in 1913. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the lighthouse was painted

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

green and a

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

station was built here to monitor the

North Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The original light, still in use today, is a first-order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the ...

(the largest type of lighthouse lens) manufactured by

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance f ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Each side of the lens is over 8’ tall and 5’ wide with a focal length of 3’ The lighthouse is easily seen from the water and tours are possible via

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribut ...

. Guests to Langara Island can enjoy a 1-2 hour tour of the lighthouse and its surrounding grounds, usually including a trip up to the top of the light tower, as well as coffee or tea with the lightkeepers. The Langara Light is one of 12 lighthouses part of the

British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program The British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program is a sea surface temperature and salinity monitoring program on the Canadian coast of the northeast Pacific Ocean. The program is administered by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and regroups 12 ...

, collecting coastal water temperature and salinity measurements everyday since 1936.

Keepers

* Head Keepers: James T. Forsyth 1913–1918 * William J. Stinson 1918–1919 * J. McCann 1919 * George Armstrong 1919–1932 * H. Greenwood 1932–1936 * Gordon Odlum 1941–1942 * William Norman Kinnear 1943–1945 * Neil Lange 1945–1947 * Richard Crawford 1948–1950 * Otto Lindstrom 1950–1953 * George Brown 1953–1957 * Edward Albert Hartt 1957–1963 * Wilf Redlac 1963–1964 * Maurice Collette 1967–1971 * Ken Wallace 1971–1973 * Tom E. Carr 1973–1975 * Charles Redhead 1975–1982 * Edward J. Ashe 1982–1983 * Kenneth Brunn 1983–1989 * Warren Kennedy 1989–1992 * Gordon Schweers 1992–2010 * Stanley Westhaver 2010–presentLangara Point
Lighthouse Friends

References

* *

External links

Aids to Navigation
Canadian Coast Guard
Picture of Langara Point Lighthouse
Lighthouses completed in 1913 Lighthouses in British Columbia Heritage sites in British Columbia 1913 establishments in British Columbia Lighthouses on the Canadian Register of Historic Places {{BritishColumbia-lighthouse-stub

Keepers

See also

References

External links