Crane Island (Isle-aux-Grues) is a substantial island situated just downstream from Quebec City and Île d’Orléans. Just north of Crane Island, and separated from it by a small stream, is Goose Island (Ile-aux-Oies). Crane Island Lighthouse was established near the southeast end of the island in 1861, and then in 1906, work began on a set of range lights at Hospital Rock, on the northeast end of Goose Island.

The following information on these range lights appeared in the Canada Gazette in 1908:

A channel 1,000 feet wide is being dredged through Beaujeu bank off Crane island, river St. Lawrence below Quebec, to a depth of 30 feet at extreme low water. Work has so far progressed that a width of 600 feet has been completed and swept. This dredged cut, which passes south of the existing Beaujeu bank west end gas and bell buoy, is marked by range light buildings erected in 1907 on Goose island, the line of range passing 250 feet south of the gas and bell buoy, which is on the north edge of the completed dredging. These range lights, which will be known as the Hospital rock range, will be put in operation about the 21st July, 1908.

The front lighthouse stands on Hospital rock. The lighthouse is a square wooden building, surmounted by an octagonal wooden lantern, the whole painted white. The lighthouse is 22 feet high from its bas to the top of the ventilator on the lantern.

The light is a fixed white light. It is elevated 28 feet above high water mark, and should be visible 9 miles in the line of range. The illuminating apparatus is catoptric, and the illuminant petroleum vapour, burned under an incandescent mantle.

The back tower stands 5,960 feet N. 44° 20’ E. from the front lighthouse. It consists of a skeleton steel frame, square in plan, with sloping sides, painted brown, surmounted by a wooden watchroom and an octagonal iron lantern. The upper portion of the side of the steel framework facing the channel is covered with wooden slats. The wooden slats, the watchroom and lantern are painted white, and the lantern roof is painted red. The tower is 64 feet high from its base to the top of the ventilator on the lantern.

The light is a fixed white light. It is elevated 65 feet above high water mark, and should be visible 10 miles in the line or range. The illuminating apparatus is catoptric, and the illuminant petroleum vapour, burned under an incandescent mantle.

Two range lights are in course of construction on Hospital rock, Goose island; the front tower is situated about 12 feet above high water mark, and the back tower stands on pasture land in the rear. The low front tower which is a square wooden building has already been completed, and the back tower, which consists of a three-section steel skeleton tower, ordered from Messrs. Goold, Shapley & Muir, of Brantford, Ont., has been put together and will soon be ready to receive the lantern and illuminating apparatus.

The rear tower was purchased from Goold, Shapley & Muir, of Brantford, Ontario for $502.80, and day labour completed the erection of the two towers at a cost of $2,708. Victor Lavoie was appointed keeper of the range lights on April 1, 1909 at an annual salary of $240. He was still serving as keeper in 1937, when his salary was $480. In 1909, a three-foot-wide, red, vertical stripe was painted down the middle of the side of the rear tower that faced the channel.

A new oil shed was built at the station in 1910, and in 1915 an extension was made to the front light. The front lighthouse was surmounted by an octagonal lantern and displayed a fixed white light at a height of twenty-two feet above the river. The rear tower was located on Goose Island, 1,987 yards from the front light at a bearing of 25°, and displayed a fixed white light at a height of sixty-four feet. When in range, the lights lead through the center of the dredged Beaujeu Channel.

The original range towers were in use until the early 1970s, when they were replaced by square, skeletal towers. Hospital Rock Range was deactivated in 2020.

Keepers: Victor Lavoie (1909 – at least 1937).

References

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

No lights mark this range today.

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