Crane Island (Isle-aux-Grues) is a substantial island situated just downstream from Quebec City and Île d’Orléans. In 1860, the Parliament of the Province of Quebec voted to fund the construction of the five lighthouses to mark the navigable channel of St. Lawrence River below Quebec City at Brandy Pots, Long Pilgrim Island, Grande Isle de Kamouraska, Bellechasse Island, and Crane Island. Nineteen tenders were received for doing the work and that of Louis Dery, a builder of Quebec, was found to be the most eligible, and he was awarded a contract to construct all five.

Lantern rooms and lighting apparatuses for the lighthouses were ordered from England, and materials were prepared during the winter of 1860 – 1861 so the structures could be finished by the first of September of 1861. The chief engineer of public works, accompanied by an experienced river pilot, examined the proposed locations for the lighthouses and fixed the sites of the respective buildings. At Crane Island, a site on the most prominent point of a shoal that dried at low water, was selected on the southeast side of the island, roughly two-and-a-half kilometres from the western tip of the island. A pier was constructed atop the shoal, and on this was built a wooden octagonal tower that stood thirty-two feet tall. The pier was rhomboidal in shape with its acute angles parallel to the line of the current. Five lamps, set in parabolic reflectors, were used in the octagonal lantern room to illuminate 225° of the horizon. The light had a focal plane of forty-eight feet, and Joseph Painchaud was hired as its first keeper.

Keeper Painchaud and his family had only the tower as their living space until 1872, when a small building was built adjoining the lighthouse. In 1884, Miville Deschenes, of Rivered Ouelle, received a contract to build a new lighthouse and dwelling at Crane Island for $1,795. On June 1, 1885, the light in the old tower at Crane Island was discontinued, and the light in the new tower built near the outer end of the new pier was established. The new wooden, octagonal lighthouse stood atop a cribwork block that elevated it six feet above the pier. The focal plane of the light was forty-seven feet above high-water mark, and the new light was located 120 feet nearer the shipping channel than the old light. The new keeper’s dwelling was situated on the nearby shore.

Upon the opening of navigation in 1890, the characteristic of Crane Island Light was changed from fixed white to occulting white, where a screen that revolved around a sixth-order lens obscured the light for four seconds each minute. In 1895, men sent from Quebec levelled the lighthouse upon its foundations and repaired six rooms in the dwelling at a cost of $260. In 1898, workmen were sent to repair the pier at a cost of $416.86, after ice damaged it.

In 1900, new springs were procured from Chance Bros. of Birmingham, England, the makers of the clockwork apparatus that revolved the screen, to remedy issues with the flashing apparatus. In 1905, a fourth-order lens, acquired from Chance Bros., was placed in the lantern room at Crane Island along with an occulting screen operated by spring clockwork to improve the light. The characteristic of the new light was ten seconds of light followed by five seconds of eclipse. At the same time, the illuminant was changed from oil to petroleum vapour.

Joseph Painchaud served as keeper of Crane Island Lighthouse from 1861 through 1903. Desire Vezina took over as keeper in 1904 and served through at least 1937.

On June 3, 1905, a cribwork foundation was sunk two kilometres northwest of Crane Island Lighthouse on the west side of Beaujeu Channel. The foundation was built of timber cribwork, was fifty feet square, thirteen feet high, and topped with concrete walls with a batter. The foundation, sunk with one corner pointing upstream, was surmounted by a concrete beacon reinforced by steel. The beacon was square in plan, with sloping sides, and surrounded a cylindrical steel gasholder, painted red, that protruded out of it. A red, pyramidal steel frame carrying a lantern surmounted the gasholder. This unwatched light was placed in operation on October 24, 1905 and had a focal plane of twenty-seven feet above the high-water mark. Messrs. Griffin & Desnoyers, of Quebec, built the light under a contract for $25,000. This light, known as Beaujeu Bank Light, could be aligned with Crane Island Lighthouse to indicate the deep water channel from the lower end of Goose Island Reef to the turn at Beaujeu Bank gas buoy. The foundation of this light can still be seen in the river today.

In 1907, work began on a five-section, steel, skeletal tower to replace the wooden lighthouse on the pier at Crane Island. As the pier was found to not be strong enough to support the new tower, concrete pillars were extended through it to serve as a foundation. Goold, Shapley &, Muir Company, of Brantford, Ontario supplied the tower at a cost of $1,184, and day labour laid the foundation and erected the tower for $4,385. The new tower, which was ninety feet tall, was square in plan with sloping sides and surmounted by a wooden watchroom and an octagonal iron lantern room. The new light was placed in operation in 1908, and the old tower was cut down to one story and capped by a pyramidal roof so it could be used as one of a series of new telephone stations being established along the shipping channel.

In 1910, Crane Island Light was changed from an occulting white light back to a fixed white light. The new light was a fourth-order, dioptric light reinforced in the downstream range by reflectors.

The steel, skeletal tower was standing through at least 1955. In 2021, a square, skeletal tower was being used on the wharf at Crane Island to display a flashing green light.

Keepers: Joseph Painchaud (1861 – 1903), Desire Vezina (1904 – at least 1937).

References

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

A modern light is exhibited from the wharf at Crane Island today.

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