Brigus Lighthouse

This trackable wants to make it's way to the BRIGUS LIGHTHOUSE and continue on to visit all the beautiful places in Newfoundland.

Due to COV-19, we started taking road trips around Newfoundland communities and I started creating trackables for the different communities we visit.  Planning to start visiting all the lighthouse in Newfoundland but with developing osteoarthritis, I am sad that I won't be able to make the walk to this one.  I hope to hide this trackable in the Brigus Tunnel cache in 2021 and hope someone retrieves it who will be making their way to the Brigus lighthouse and hide it in one of the caches near the lighthouse.  Like to have some pictures of the trackable taken by the lighthouse as I won't get to see it myself.

Hope my trackable finds it's way to someone that can help it reach it's goal!

All Trails - Brigus Lightouse

In 1882, Lighthouse Inspector John T. Neville noted that four small cast-iron towers had been manufactured for use at Sandy Point, Point La Haye, Bay Roberts Point, and on the northern head of Brigus. A parcel of land on the headland marking the north side of the entrance to Brigus was purchased from Thomas Hawe in 1883 for sixty dollars. This land had been in the family for forty years and was known as Hawe’s Point.

The tower was landed on the headland in 1883, but no other work was done that year. “The work of erection has not been proceeded with because the Tower would be useless without a keeper’s dwelling, and funds have not been provided for this,” wrote Inspector Neville. “Owing to the distance of the Head from any houses, and the rugged character of the intervening country, it is necessary to have a keeper living on the spot.”

During 1884, the tower was put up, a keeper’s dwelling was built, and a keeper was appointed so the light could commence operation on March 1, 1885. The round, iron tower was painted in red and white vertical stripes, as was the adjacent, two-storey keeper’s dwelling, which featured a mansard roof. The tower stood 9.5 metres tall and was topped by a lantern with triangular glazing. One Argand lamp was used inside a sixth-order lens to produce a fixed red light at a focal plane of 34.5 metres.

The first keeper was William W. Horwood, and he was followed in 1898 by Samuel S. Wilcox. Samuel’s son, Walter, assumed responsibility for the light around 1916.

Brigus Lighthouse was electrified in 1931 and operated afterward from a switch near the government wharf in Brigus by Water Wilcox. No longer needed, the dwelling on the north head was torn down.

The tower was classified a Recognized Federal Heritage Building in 1990.