By ALANA PERKINS
The Burlington Post
Wednesday, April 26, 1989
Listening to fiery sailor's stories and spending vacations clambering around old lighthouses is a labor of love for one Burlington couple who have produced a book on the subject in an effort to preserve a local landmark.
Harbour Lights Burlington Bay by Mary Weeks-Mifflin and Ray Mifflin was released this month. The authors spent the last three years researching and writing the 84-page book which they hope will spark a community group to restore the Burlington Bay lighthouse.
"We're concerned that if it's left any longer, to deteriorate, it might be pulled down," says Mifflin.
The book not only documents the history behind the 141-year-old lighthouse but it details the exciting events occurring in the harbor around the structure since the last century.
A grade school teacher with the Halton Board of Education, Mifflin observes that history texts discuss early farm life and Indian ways in early Burlington but the marine history has been neglected. Although the bay was the location where some of Canada's first schooners were built, it has hardly received a mention in history books, he says.
"A lot of people think Canadian history is boring, especially local history," says Mifflin. "But we kept the book readable, light and interesting."
True to their word, the couple created fascinating reading about numerous shipwrecks in the harbor, tragic drownings, fires on the piers when boats bringing whale oil to the lighthouse scraped along igniting the wooden planks, and hazardous lives of lightkeepers.
From the diaries of George Thompson (now stored in the Joseph Brant Museum), readers learn how Burlington's lighthouse became involved in serious controversy.
The lighthouse was the first in Canada to adapt coat oil rather than whale oil to fuel the lights. The Burlington experiment angered marines who felt whalers would have their livelihoods wiped out. Despite determined opposition, the government insisted coal oil would replace the pricey whale oil which was becoming harder to obtain.
It was the authors' determination to recite accurate historic events which led them to uncover another little known fact. The Burlington Bay lighthouse was thought to be built by anonymous Scottish masons according to newspaper clippings in the middle 1800s. Yet it was contractor John Brown, who built the well-known six limestone lighthouses on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and the Imperial Towers, who constructed Burlington's lighthouse.
The authors actually tripped across this startling revelation while researching their first book, The Light on Chantry Island. Now into its second printing, the first book was an inspiration by Weeks-Mifflin whose family spent summers at a cottage near Chantry
Island on Lake Huron.
A registered nursing assistant with the Canadian Red Cross, Weeks-Mifflin decided a book needed to be written about Chantry Island and its lighthouse which was among the many whose staff was being replaced by the coast guard.
"Before too many of these lighthouses were destroyed and the lightkeepers sent away, I thought we'd better get it all down on paper," says Weeks-Mifflin during an interview in her Cape-Cod-style home.
Weeks-Mifflin does not fault the coast guard for not financing the historical preservation of the lighthouses since they do not have the funds. The coast guard's main function is to oversee the day to day shipping lanes.
However, as automation replaces a lightkeeper's job with light sensors triggering beacons on and off and solar cells charging the batteries for electric light, a little bit of history was slipping into obscurity and the Burlington couple felt obliged to retrieve it.
Therefore, armed with an undying and romantic loyalty for their subject, (Europe has its castles. We have lighthouses, is the way Weeks-Mifflin explains their absorbing pastime) the couple have embarked on intensive research treks which seem as adventuresome as their writings.
Weeks-Mifflin spent several weeks flying with a coast guard helicopter pilot to several lighthouses along the Great Lakes. It was during this time that she became intrigued with the idea of being a commercial helicopter pilot. With 20 hours ground school to her credit already, Weeks-Mifflin intends to realize that ambition in the next few years.
Researching has also led the couple to meet many lightkeepers in the most isolated areas of Northern Ontario. Described as a "fraternity" unto themselves, the lightkeepers, while leading isolated lives, always seem skilled in an interest such as carpentry, writing or gardening. Often two families live alongside each other as they need relief to maintain the lights all night during a storm.
Researching pre-confederation history was tricky at times. Photographs were occasionally misfiled and it was only through sheer luck the couple came across valuable artifacts which would help them piece together their story.
The boat registry could be difficult to follow where records might not mention a sunken boat had been raised, rebuilt and sometimes renamed.
Two grants from the Ontario Arts Council helped to offset research costs and the price of purchasing photographs.
People's generosity left the couple eternally grateful to those individuals who opened up their homes and their photo albums without a price tag. Sometimes Weeks-Mifflin says she encountered people who would "hoard their history". But when the authors showed their willingness to share their findings with people like the Toronto Marine Historical Society and the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, doors would open for them.
"It's like a big jigsaw puzzle," says Mifflin. "One piece will fit in 'and it raises 10 more questions."
The ink is not dry on the 3,000 copies of Harbour Lights Burlington Bay, which were printed by Boston Mills Press, before the authors began to assemble the photographs and research for their third book on lighthouses of the " Great Lakes. The couple estimate it will be their most ambitious research project yet, stretching five years before a manuscript is completed.
But the man who was a non-swimmer before he met his wife and the woman who has developed a love for flying, intend to do what has worked best for them in the past.
"Ray is good at looking at micro film for hours on end and I do the people work," says Weeks-Mifflin with a laugh.
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Posted with full permission from the Burlington Post
The Burlington Post
Wednesday, April 26, 1989
Listening to fiery sailor's stories and spending vacations clambering around old lighthouses is a labor of love for one Burlington couple who have produced a book on the subject in an effort to preserve a local landmark.
Harbour Lights Burlington Bay by Mary Weeks-Mifflin and Ray Mifflin was released this month. The authors spent the last three years researching and writing the 84-page book which they hope will spark a community group to restore the Burlington Bay lighthouse.
"We're concerned that if it's left any longer, to deteriorate, it might be pulled down," says Mifflin.
The book not only documents the history behind the 141-year-old lighthouse but it details the exciting events occurring in the harbor around the structure since the last century.
A grade school teacher with the Halton Board of Education, Mifflin observes that history texts discuss early farm life and Indian ways in early Burlington but the marine history has been neglected. Although the bay was the location where some of Canada's first schooners were built, it has hardly received a mention in history books, he says.
"A lot of people think Canadian history is boring, especially local history," says Mifflin. "But we kept the book readable, light and interesting."
True to their word, the couple created fascinating reading about numerous shipwrecks in the harbor, tragic drownings, fires on the piers when boats bringing whale oil to the lighthouse scraped along igniting the wooden planks, and hazardous lives of lightkeepers.
From the diaries of George Thompson (now stored in the Joseph Brant Museum), readers learn how Burlington's lighthouse became involved in serious controversy.
The lighthouse was the first in Canada to adapt coat oil rather than whale oil to fuel the lights. The Burlington experiment angered marines who felt whalers would have their livelihoods wiped out. Despite determined opposition, the government insisted coal oil would replace the pricey whale oil which was becoming harder to obtain.
It was the authors' determination to recite accurate historic events which led them to uncover another little known fact. The Burlington Bay lighthouse was thought to be built by anonymous Scottish masons according to newspaper clippings in the middle 1800s. Yet it was contractor John Brown, who built the well-known six limestone lighthouses on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and the Imperial Towers, who constructed Burlington's lighthouse.
The authors actually tripped across this startling revelation while researching their first book, The Light on Chantry Island. Now into its second printing, the first book was an inspiration by Weeks-Mifflin whose family spent summers at a cottage near Chantry
Island on Lake Huron.
A registered nursing assistant with the Canadian Red Cross, Weeks-Mifflin decided a book needed to be written about Chantry Island and its lighthouse which was among the many whose staff was being replaced by the coast guard.
"Before too many of these lighthouses were destroyed and the lightkeepers sent away, I thought we'd better get it all down on paper," says Weeks-Mifflin during an interview in her Cape-Cod-style home.
Weeks-Mifflin does not fault the coast guard for not financing the historical preservation of the lighthouses since they do not have the funds. The coast guard's main function is to oversee the day to day shipping lanes.
However, as automation replaces a lightkeeper's job with light sensors triggering beacons on and off and solar cells charging the batteries for electric light, a little bit of history was slipping into obscurity and the Burlington couple felt obliged to retrieve it.
Therefore, armed with an undying and romantic loyalty for their subject, (Europe has its castles. We have lighthouses, is the way Weeks-Mifflin explains their absorbing pastime) the couple have embarked on intensive research treks which seem as adventuresome as their writings.
Weeks-Mifflin spent several weeks flying with a coast guard helicopter pilot to several lighthouses along the Great Lakes. It was during this time that she became intrigued with the idea of being a commercial helicopter pilot. With 20 hours ground school to her credit already, Weeks-Mifflin intends to realize that ambition in the next few years.
Researching has also led the couple to meet many lightkeepers in the most isolated areas of Northern Ontario. Described as a "fraternity" unto themselves, the lightkeepers, while leading isolated lives, always seem skilled in an interest such as carpentry, writing or gardening. Often two families live alongside each other as they need relief to maintain the lights all night during a storm.
Researching pre-confederation history was tricky at times. Photographs were occasionally misfiled and it was only through sheer luck the couple came across valuable artifacts which would help them piece together their story.
The boat registry could be difficult to follow where records might not mention a sunken boat had been raised, rebuilt and sometimes renamed.
Two grants from the Ontario Arts Council helped to offset research costs and the price of purchasing photographs.
People's generosity left the couple eternally grateful to those individuals who opened up their homes and their photo albums without a price tag. Sometimes Weeks-Mifflin says she encountered people who would "hoard their history". But when the authors showed their willingness to share their findings with people like the Toronto Marine Historical Society and the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, doors would open for them.
"It's like a big jigsaw puzzle," says Mifflin. "One piece will fit in 'and it raises 10 more questions."
The ink is not dry on the 3,000 copies of Harbour Lights Burlington Bay, which were printed by Boston Mills Press, before the authors began to assemble the photographs and research for their third book on lighthouses of the " Great Lakes. The couple estimate it will be their most ambitious research project yet, stretching five years before a manuscript is completed.
But the man who was a non-swimmer before he met his wife and the woman who has developed a love for flying, intend to do what has worked best for them in the past.
"Ray is good at looking at micro film for hours on end and I do the people work," says Weeks-Mifflin with a laugh.
------------------------------------------------------------
Posted with full permission from the Burlington Post