Beach Strip lighthouse still standing tall.

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THE BURLINGTON POST. August 23(no year)
Looking Back by Dennis Smith
Although no longer in use, the Beach Strip lighthouse has been a fixture in the area since the early 1800s.
The first lighthouse was built just south of the canal in the 1830s (1838 is the date most widely quoted), and a keeper was hired for the building shortly afterwards. The keeper would work together with the ferryman, and both had houses near the canal.
A big problem with the lighthouse, and many other buildings of the early 1800s, was that they were made of wood.
In fact, the wooden pier was so vulnerable to sparks from passing steamers, that the lighthouse keeper and ferryman sometimes had to rip boards out of the pier and chuck them into the canal to prevent major fires.
And as it turned out, a couple of stray sparks from the steamship Ranger burned down the lighthouse, ferryhouse, dwelling house and a log house in the area on July 18, 1856.
A temporary replacement lighthouse was built some months later, then by 1858, work got underway on a more permanent structure.
Stone used this time
Authorities had learned their lesson and the new lighthouse was built of stone, five floors high, on the south bank of the canal.
The builder was John Brown, who had recently finished constructing the well-known six Imperial Towers on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
As it turned out, the Burlington Canal lighthouse is the twin of one built on Christian Island, Georgian Bay, northwest of Midland. Another report compared the local structure to a famous lighthouse located in Dover, England
The lighthouse was made with white dolomite limestone, several feet thick at one point. Once the stone portion was completed, a spiral staircase was added, and the tower was topped off with a lantern room.
The Burlington canal lighthouse started a trend towards coal oil lamps instead of whale oil, a shift which angered whalers.
The new lighthouse was not without its trials and tribulations. A major storm in November, 1958 sent water through its stone walls, and made the lantern on top leaky.
"Everything about the canal in wretched plight, been one of most dreadful storms ever experienced on Burlington beach," wrote longtime lighthouse keeper George Thompson.
(A few months later, timber and planking, bedded in concrete were laid to provide the lighthouse with a stronger foundation, to withstand the elements.)
From his perch atop the lighthouse overlooking the Beach Strip, Thompson would polish the reflector, tend the light, and jot in his diary.
Coal oil froze
Keeping the lighthouse going was definitely Job No.1. In one entry from 1858, he wrote. "I had much work and trouble in warming the coal oil in the pier and lighthouse. I wrapped the lamps all round with flannel and rope yarn. I was wearing mittens with the ear flaps of the cap down. I kept large lighthouse light burning but the coal oil partially froze!"
He seemed a terse, but witty fellow. For example, he described celebrations of the Queen's birthday as "a waste of gunpowder."
On another occasion, two men named Baldry and Waddell were jailed briefly for fishing illegally, after Thompson testified against them.. "Balderdash out of jail," he wrote a couple of days later.
Other delinquents were the Coreys, whom Thompson observed taking sand off the beach in scows, for sale to a Hamilton glassworks. This was illegal, and the lighthouse keeper noted that "Corey got a letter about the sand."
Thompson also had an eye for wildlife and recorded seeing numerous birds including loons, kingfishers, owls, night hawks, canaries, swallows, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, crows and gannets. He once caught a raccoon sleeping on the lighthouse window. The lighthouse keeper was friends with William Simcoe Kerr, a descendent of Joseph Brant who lived in the Brant house at the north end of the Beach Strip.
In winters when the canal froze, the keeper would put man-ropes across the canal so that pedestrians could walk salfely.
He would also put markers at the end of the pier so that horse ' drawn vehicles could safely go around it on their way to the opposite beach.
By the 1870s, Captain Thos. Campbell had replaced Thompson as the lighthouse keeper. He lasted into the 20th century, and recorded unusual events just as his predecessor did.
Capt. Campbell's recollections included everything from new cottages in the area, to storms and accidents.
Beef sinks
One time, J.C. Campbell's cutter, which was loaded with beef, broke through the ice near the piers. "Horse was drowned. Next day the beef was fished out," Capt. Campbell recalled.
Also around 1900, the captain became embroiled in controversies. He was formally charged with damaging trees on government property on the beach.
The charge seemed to relate to a long-running dispute involving a pile of lumber, plus a house and lot on government property on the Beach Strip that Capt. Campbell had purchased.
The job of lighthouse keeper seemed to be a lifelong calling. When interviewed several years ago, Pete Colletti recalled being friendly with Jack the old light house keeper back in 1968.
He and a buddy visited the old- timer on one occasion, and found him dead. By the next morning, Colletti had replaced him. He got the job permanently after going through a competition, then passing an exam.
Asked at that time if he liked his job, Colletti replied, "Oh yes! Nobody bothers you too much. You don't have to punch in every morning. You live right on the job."
It has been said the lighthouse bulb can be seen for 20 miles. Lake navigators are also helped by the lighthouse fog horn, or by the sending of Morse code signals.
The old lighthouse was replaced in 1961 by a more modern beacon at the end of the pier, built in the late '40s. But the old lighthouse was considered quite expensive to demolish, so it became one historic building that survived progress.

This week's column was con piled with help of information from The Sand Strip: Burlington/Ham ton Beaches, by Dorothy Turcotte Brass Tacks, a historical magazine published by Burlington Central High School; and from Burlington library files.
 
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