Most visitors to the waterfront at Saint-Siméon today are either passengers for the Saint-Siméon – Rivière-du-Loup ferry or a whale-watch boat, but years ago it was the steamers of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company that carried most people to and from the wharf at Saint-Siméon.

Light atop freight shed at Saint-Siméon Photograph courtesy Library and Archives Canada

In 1906, the Department of Marine announced the completion of a new light at Saint-Siméon:

A light was established on the outer end of the government wharf at St. Simeon. It is a fixed white light, elevated 40 feet above high water mark, and visible 11 miles over an arc of 163 degrees. The illuminating apparatus is dioptric of the fifth order. The light is shown from an octagonal wooden lantern, painted white with roof red, built on the apex of the roof of the rectangular wooden freight shed on the outer end of the wharf. The freight shed is painted drab with the roof red, and the height from the deck of the wharf to the ventilator on the lantern is 35 feet.

While the above description mentions an octagonal wooden lantern, the picture on this page shows the freight shed with a square lantern. Light Lists also confirm that the structure had a square lantern, so either the initial description was incorrect or the octagonal lantern had a short life.

The freight-shed lighthouse was in use through at least 1955, but by 1971, a red-and-white, square, skeletal tower was being used to mark the wharf. Today, a flashing red light is displayed from atop a square, skeletal tower on the outer end of the wharf.

Keepers: Henri Savard (1906 – 1912), Elie Tremblay (1912 –1919), Mrs. O.S. Tremblay (1919), H. Tremblay (1919), W. Savard (1919 – at least 1923).

References

1. Annual Report of the Department of Marine, various years.

From QC-138 in Saint-Siméon, turn toward the river on Rue du Festival and continue to its end where you will see the light at the end of the ferry dock.

The light is owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. Grounds/tower closed.

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