The French inhabited the area around Glace Bay in the 1720s to extract coal for their fortress at Louisbourg, and coal was the main driver of the local economy into the 1980s. When mining was at its peak, Glace Bay had twelve active coal mines. A visit to the Miners Museum at Glace Bay is a great way to learn about the history of coal mining in the region, and you can even take an underground mine tour.

Glace Bay Front Range Lighthouse Photograph courtesy Nova Scotia Archives

Glace Bay is situated on the northeast coast of Cape Breton, and the French named it Baie de Glace, Ice Bay, due to the sea ice that filled the bay each winter. Glace Bay itself affords no safe anchorage, but coal companies created two artificial harbours inside it: one on the west shore where Renwick Brook empties into Glace Bay and one at the south at Big Glace Bay Lake. In 1878, the Superintendent of Lights was in Glace Bay and reported on the possibility of placing a light there:

The bay itself (Glace Bay) is not a harbour or roadstead except with off-shore winds. There are two artificial harbours, one the Little Glace Bay Coal Co’s., the other the Caledonia Coal Co’s.

Owing to the depression in the coal trade neither of these harbours are frequented by as large a number of vessels as formerly. Little Glace Bay Harbour on the western side of the bay is easiest of access, not being so much embayed as the Caledonia Co’s. Harbour. The channels both have been dredged to a depth of about 17 feet. Little Glace Bay is frequently resorted to by the fishermen of the coast.

Lights on the piers would be of great assistance to vessels engaged in the coal trade and fisheries. Small craft wishing to anchor on dark nights often have to come too outside the bar, and send a man on shore with a lantern to mark the end of the pier and enable them to keep in the channel.

There are two piers forming the harbour at Little Glace Bay running out from the shore in a north easterly direction, converging towards the end. The entrance between the piers is about 150 feet wide. The southern pier extends out about 20 feet further than the other, and is 48 feet wide at the end, and the northern pier is 24 feet wide at end. They are both built of timber, ballasted in cribs of 24 feet across, and about 8 feet apart. The 17-foot channel dredged through the bar, extends out about 150 yards in a north-easterly direction, and further out widens and deepens into the bay. It is about 200 feet wide where it crosses the bar, and is so difficult to hit on a dark night, without a guiding light, that vessels do not attempt it except in fine weather and by day.

Coal was shipped out of the harbours on Glace Bay until railroads were built to connect the local mines with the larger ports at Syndey at Louisbourg. The port at Louisbourg was especially good as it remained free of ice during the winter.

The Department of Marine finally erected a pair of range lights to mark Glace Bay Harbour, on the western side of Glace Bay, in 1907. The following description of the lights was published in 1908:

Range light towers were erected in Glace Cove, Glace Bay, and were put in operation on December 15, 1907. The front tower stands on the north pier at the entrance to Glace Cove, 10 feet from its outer end. The tower is an enclosed wooden building, square in plan, with sloping sides, surmounted by a square wooden lantern, the whole painted white. The height of the tower from its base to the top of the ventilator on the lantern is 22 feet. The light is fixed red dioptric of the sixth order, elevated 23 feet above high-water mark, and visible 6 miles from all points of approach.

The back tower stands on the south side of Glace Cove, about 75 feet back from the water’s edge, and distant 1,900 feet from the front tower. It is an inclosed wooden building, square in plan, with sloping sides, surmounted by a square wooden lantern, the whole painted white. The height of the tower from its base to the top of the ventilator on the lantern is 42 feet. The light is fixed red catoptric, elevated 51 feet above high-water mark, and visible 8 miles in, and over a small arc on each side of the line of range. The lights in on lead into the entrance of the harbor between the north and south piers, clear of all obstructions. The work was done by contract by Mr. Angus McCaskil, of Glace Bay, N.S., the contract price being $1,375, and extras of $40 were allowed.

Glace Bay Rear Range Lighthouse Photograph courtesy Nova Scotia Archives

Michael McNeil was placed in charge of the front light and Angus McFarlane was placed in charge of back light on November 19, 1907. Each earned an annual salary of $75.

The front range tower must have been swept of the pier in 1917, as $173 was paid for salvaging the building, and the next year the front range tower was erected on a new site. In 1921, a mast light replaced the front tower, and the back tower was moved to align with the new front light. Fire destroyed the front range light in 1923, and a new small wooden tower was built to take its place.

On February 29, 1956, a new combination lighthouse and fog-alarm building, built at the end of the north pier, was placed in operation. The square, concrete fog-alarm building was topped by a square tower from which a fixed green light was shown. The range lights remained in operation at Glace Bay even after the addition of the new lighthouse on the north pier. The wooden towers were apparently removed in 1980, but modern range lights remain active in the harbour.

In 1990, a new light tower was built at the outer end of the stone breakwater outside of the north pier. This white circular tower was topped by a red band and a short red skeletal town from which a green light was displayed. In 2016, a pole light displaying a flashing red light was placed on the outer end of the north breakwater.

The delapidated Glace Bay Front Range tower burned down around 2018.

Keepers:

• Front: Michael McNeil (1907 – 1922), D.J. McDonald (1922 – at least 1923).
• Back: Angus McFarlane (1907 – 1917), Murdock Wilson (1917 – at least 1923).

  References

  1. Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, various years.
  2. Lighthouses & Lights of Nova Scotia, E.H. Rip Irwin, 2003.

Glace Bay Range Front Lighthouse was located on private property between the last two houses on the right side of Bathgate Street in Glace Bay, but it burned down around 2018. Modern range lights still guide mariners into the harbour at Glace Bay.

The lighthouse is privately owned. Grounds/tower closed.

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