Founded in 2010, the Canadian Lightkeepers Association promotes awareness and understanding of Canada's requirements for staffed lightstations. Specifically, we aim to: [more]

Pt Atkinson

Lighthouse Park icon likely to stay public: Beacon recognized as site 'of national interest'

Posted Tue, 2011-03-08 22:33
Date Published: 
2011-03-08
Source: 
North Shore News: West Vancouver, BC

West Vancouver's efforts to keep the iconic lighthouse at Lighthouse Park for public use appear to have been successful.

The 86-year-old building on Point Atkinson went up for sale last spring along with about 1,000 other lighthouses across the country, in a bid by the federal government to unload the cost of their upkeep. The idea was to sell the structures to businesses or communities while Ottawa retained control of the lights themselves, which would be maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard.

Bright future

Posted Thu, 2010-06-17 19:54
Date Published: 
2010-06-17
Source: 
North Shore News - North Vancouver

The federal government's decision to sell off Canada's heritage lighthouses is a great opportunity for West Vancouver.

The Point Atkinson Light Station, a national historic site, has been neglected for too long. While the feds have done some fix-up work, the Coast Guard has neither the money nor the inclination to showcase this storied spot. Now they're getting out of the way.

18 BC lighthouses on chopping block.

Posted Tue, 2010-06-15 11:17
Date Published: 
2010-06-15
Source: 
Alice Woods, DFO, Globe&Mail

Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea wants to sell off 18 active BC lighthouses. They include Pt Atkinson in West Vancouver, Prospect Point in Stanley Park, Discovery Island south of Victoria, and Sand Heads at the entrance to the Fraser River off Steveston.

Heritage law doesn't unplug lighthouses, but future is still dim.

Posted Thu, 2010-06-10 19:25
Date Published: 
2010-06-10
Source: 
Vancouver Sun

In August 1889, T.A. Fullerton, superintendent of Canadian Pacific Steamships, sent a message to the minister of marine in Ottawa warning of dire consequences for "a young town like Vancouver ... should any accident occur to any of the steamers in the narrows."

Fullerton wanted a fog horn added to the Point Atkinson light, which had gone into operation 14 years earlier, four years after the colony of British Columbia officially became part of the new country of Canada.