In February 1663, a strong earthquake shook the Charlevoix region of Quebec and triggered a large landslide. Gabriel Lalement, one of many eyewitnesses that testified to the significance of the event, wrote: “Near the Bay called St. Paul, there was a small mountain alongside the river, a quarter of a league in circumference, which was abyssed, and as if it had not done that dive, it came out of the bottom to change into an islet." Thereafter, the area was known as les Éboulements (French for “the landslides”).

A request was made in 1851 that a sum, not exceeding five thousand pounds, be granted for a pier and light at Les Éboulements. The wharf was built earlier, but it wasn’t until 1882 that a wharf light was placed in operation at Les Éboulements. That same year, a wharf light was also placed on the wharf at Isle-aux-Coudres, the island just offshore from Les Éboulements.

Abraham Goudreault was the keeper of the wharf light at Les Éboulements from when it was established until 1892. Magloire Tremblay replaced Goudreault as keeper, and in 1894 he constructed an enclosed lantern room atop the freight shed on the wharf to replace the pole lantern that had been used up until that time. He was paid $50 for this work, and an additional $19.50 was spent for ventilators, glass, and an illuminating apparatus. The new light was placed in operation in June of 1894 and had a focal plane of twenty-three feet above the river. In 1900, the illuminating apparatus used on the wharf was improved through the installation of a pressed glass lens with duplex lamp in place of an ordinary tin lantern.

In 1907, Wilfrid Bouchard, the keeper at that time, was provided a hand-operated foghorn that he was required to sound during periods of limited visibility. In 1940, the characteristic of the light atop the freight shed was changed from fixed white to occulting white, and then in 1942, it was changed to quick flashing green. The light atop the shed was used through at least 1960, but by 1977, a skeletal tower had been placed on the wharf for displaying the navigational light.

In 2021, a flashing green light was being displayed on the portal landing on the wharf. This light is known in the Coast Guard List of Lights as Cap Saint-Joseph.

Keepers: Abraham Goudreault (1882 – 1892), Magloire Tremblay (1892 – 1905), Wilfrid Bouchard (1906 – 1910), T. Tremblay (1910 – 1914), H. Tremblay (1914 – 1923), J. Tremblay (1923 – ).

References

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

A modern light marks the outer end of the wharf today.

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