Living Heritage Podcast Ep194 Lighthouses and Lighthouse Keepers

We're all about lighthouses and lighthouse keepers this week on Living Heritage. Grab a cup of tea, and listen to tales told by Barry Porter, as well as by archival audio from Jack Roberts and Theresa Colbourne, who were both born at lighthouse stations. Plus, an archival recording of Cyril Myrick and a mystery involving the Cape Race lighthouse, plus news of a very strange phenomenon said to happen at the Long Point Light in Twillingate. 

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Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

The Baccalieu Island Lighthouse

Baccalieu Island Lighthouse and Dwelling. Photo courtesy Heritage House (Lighthouse Friends Website)

Baccalieu Island is an uninhabited island located in northern Conception Bay near Red Head Cove. Construction began on the Baccalieu Island lighthouse and dwelling in July of 1858. It was first established as a fog station in 1905, and the light tower was later added in 1953. The tower was composed of red bricks and stood at twenty-five-feet tall. The dwelling was painted white with a red roof.

James Ryan was the first lighthouse keeper appointed to the Baccalieu Island Lighthouse in 1858, and four generations of Ryans manned the lighthouse for the next ninety years. The telegram reported the following about the Ryans upon their retirement:

“They were well and favourably known by all mariners and fishermen in the sea lanes, they were the friends of all who needed them and were ready at all times to risk their lives to save others. Because of their isolation they loved not man less, but nature more, they always felt close to God and they were God fearing people.”

When there was talk of demolishing the lighthouse, locals protested by writing a letter:

“Demolishing the stone lighthouse would be destroying a part of our culture, that could never be replaced. It would be tantamount to ‘blowing up’ a medieval castle in Europe, an act so outrageous that it would immediately have word wide attention.”

Today, the lighthouse is not manned by a living person, however, a bright white light still flashes every ten seconds, warning nearby boats of impending danger and serving as a reminder of Newfoundland's rich fishing history. 

-Katie Harvey

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Barry Porter, Lighthouse Keeper

In 2009, as part of a presentation to the Museum Association of NL, I did a sample oral history interview with former lighthouse keeper Barry Porter.  In this short interview, Barry discusses his life as a lighthouse keeper, where he worked, the characteristics of the lights, a typical work day, the fog horn system, and the difference between manned and unmanned lighthouses.

Listen to the interview here on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

Photo: Aerial view of Long Point Lighthouse in 1991, courtesy Canadian Coast Guard

Heritage Update: Grants, Conferences, & Red Cliff and Random Head Memories

In Heritage Update Number 070 for March-April 2017: we introduce some changes to our Designation and Grant Programs; share memories from the former Red Cliff Base; announce the grant deadline for the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Program 2017; meet the Coopers, the lighthouse family of Random Head in a special article from the Clarenville Heritage Society; and ask you to save the date for the "Adapting our Heritage Conference" in St. John’s, October 25 – 28, 2017. We also take a trip to look at the archival material of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, seek your help with our survey of historical churches, and announce the Greenspond Courthouse Call for Expressions of Interest!

Contributors: Lucy Alway, Terra Barrett, Stephen Bonnell, Jerry Dick, and Kelly Drover.

Download the pdf

photo: "Home Sweet Home" - The Lighthouse - Random Head. Courtesy Clarenville Heritage Society.

Heritage Week - Cape Race Collective Memories #NLheritage

VA 55-3.4; Cape Race [lighthouse], Newfoundland.  Photo courtesy of The Rooms.

As part of the Collective Memories project the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is helping community organizations, municipalities, and church groups digitize their oral history collections to make them accessible for future generations. Collected stories are made available through Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is a free, public website where the HFNL stores the photos, videos, and interviews it collects.  If you have something to be digitized - get in touch!

One of the collections we have digitized is the Cape Race collection which consists of nine interviews from the area.  These interviews focus on some of the communities on the southeast tip of the Southern Shore such as Portugal Cove South, Drook (Druke), and Long Beach.  There are a number of stories about fishing, farming and keeping animals, shipwrecks, and memories of working at the Cape Race Lighthouse.  If you want to hear stories about cases of beer and whole hams being salvaged from shipwrecks then have a listen to the Cape Race Collection.

~Terra Barrett

Folklore Photo - Heritage Lighthouse in Heart's Content

I wrote the other day about how we took a group of public folklore grad students out to Heart's Content.  Today is folklore photo day, so here is that group of students, in front of the Heart's Content Lighthouse. The lighthouse was constructed in 1901, and is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building.

You can read more about the lighthouse here and on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.

- photos by Dale Jarvis