Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site

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The National Historic Site of Canada Fisgard Lighthouse is located, together with the National Historic Site of Canada Fort Rodd Hill, at the entrance to the naval port of Esquimalt on Vancouver Iceland. To control and to protect the harbor, the present-day CFB Esquimalt, the two buildings were erected.

Location

Fisgard Lighthouse is located in Colwood in the Capital Regional District. The lighthouse is situated on a promontory beneath of Fort Rodd Hill, on the western side of the entrance to the harbor. The whole object consists of the actual, painted white, lighthouse and a red two-storey keeper's house. Further still belongs to a small boathouse.

History

Fisgard Lighthouse was declared on November 3, 1958 National Historic Site of Canada.

The tower was built in the period from 1859 to 1860 and was the first lighthouse on the west coast of the former British colony of Vancouver Iceland. The harbor at that time was an important base for the Royal Navy's Pacific Squadron. The major components of the plant were going, brought together with the first lighthouse keeper George Davies from England. According to a local legend, not only the lens and the actual equipment for the lighthouse from Europe were at that time but brought, but also the building blocks were brought as ballast. However, this legend is not reality. The building materials were procured in the area, while the steel lighthouse staircase was made in San Francisco.

Until 1929 the lighthouse was still powered by a guard, but then automated. Where have the last keeper was no longer living in the keeper's house at the tower, but on the other side of the harbor entrance in front of automation. In 1940 the light was converted to electric operation. Since its construction, the lighthouse stood on a small island at the edge of the harbor entrance. In 1958, this changed, and from the small island was a peninsula. For this purpose, of the Canadian Army, built using a variety of small islands, rocks, about a 5 meter wide causeway from the mainland to the tower.

The lighthouse is still in operation today recorded and in the corresponding charts.

Tourism

The entire system can now be visited in principle. Although can not be access to any premises, however, can be obtained in the object in the whole of the open spaces a good insight. The two historical monuments Fisgard Lighthouse and Fort Rodd Hill are hereby jointly managed by Parks Canada. Within this total are on-site cultural events, such as concerts and shows, instead.

See also

List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia