Modern lights at Sainte-Famille Range Photograph courtesy JACLAY

In 1884, Parliament made an appropriation for the establishment of ranges lights to mark Orleans Channel, the channel on the north side of Île de Orleans, and that same year work began on three sets of range lights: one on the mainland near Ange-Gardien, and two on Île de Orleans at Sainte-Famille and Saint-Pierre. Messrs. Nesbit and Auger, of Quebec, carried out the contract for the lights for $936, and the three ranges were placed in operation in 1885.

An enclosed tower and a pole light were originally employed at each of the three ranges. At Ange Gardien Range and Saint-Pierre, the enclosed tower housed the front light and the rear light was displayed from a pole, while the opposite was true at Sainte-Famille Range. The front light of Sainte-Famille Range was located on the beach near a stone mill.

In 1898, a small pier was built in connection with the pole light at a cost of $105.45. In 1907, a new tower was built to replace the pole light as described in the Annual Report of the Department of Marine for that year:

A lighthouse tower was erected to replace the pole from which the front light of the Ste. Famille range has heretofore been shown. It stands on the site of the pole, which, with the shed at its base, has been taken down. The tower is a galvanized steel skeleton structure, square in plan, with sloping sides, surmounted by a wooden watchroom and square wooden lantern. The watchroom and the sides of the lantern are painted white, and the lantern roof red. The height of the tower from its base to the top of the ventilator on the lantern is 82 feet. The light is a fixed white light, elevated 81 feet above high water mark, and visible ten miles in the line of range. The illuminating apparatus is catoptric. The tower was supplied by Messrs. Goold, Shapley & Muir of Brantford, Ontario for $668.50 and the erection work was done by day’s labour under the Quebec agency at a cost of $2,226.28.

Athanase Asselin and Pierre Paquet were hired as the first keepers of Sainte-Famille Range Lights, each earning an annual salary of sixty dollars.

In 1948, an aluminum colored, square, steel, skeletal tower replaced the wooden tower for displaying the rear light of Sainte-Famille Range. The characteristic of the lights of Pointe Saint-Pierre Range were changed from fixed white to fixed green in the 1950s. In 1992, square, skeletal towers were erected for exhibiting the range lights. The characteristic of the lights remains fixed green.

Keepers:

• Front: Athanase Asselin (1885 – 1898), Alfred Poulin (1898 – at least 1923).
• Back: Pierre Paquet (1885 – 1908), Alphonse Paquet (1908 – at least 1923).

References

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

Modern lights mark this range today.

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