Lighthouse Legacies: Stories of Nova Scotia Lightkeeping Families

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The lighthouses of Nova Scotia are rapidly disappearing. A few have been
restored and the bricks-and-mortar remains of more could be saved. But
nothing can preserve the way of life of the light keepers and their
families. Mills attempts to capture a record of this life while there is
still time to collect first-hand reminiscences from the province’s
last lightkeepers and their families, the survivors of a career that
ended with the “de-staffing” of the lights in the 1980s.

The romance of lighthouses has never been stronger, as evidenced by the
creation of local save-the-light groups and the booming
nostalgia-cum-tourism market for lighthouse publications in museums and
shops. While the familiar towers are the symbol, the core appeal is to
the mystique and allure of the lifestyle. It is an image of physical
isolation, raging seas, daring rescues, ghosts, and creepy fogs. Mills
interviewed more than 60 former lightkeepers and/or their families and
drew on his own experience of working as a lightkeeper for nine years to
give voice to a way of life that is now only a memory.

He grouped the substance of these interviews to give us a portrait of
the dedication and mechanical skills keepers required in the days before
electrification of the equipment, the challenges of raising a family on
a light station, the social costs of isolation, and the ever-present
dangers from equipment, sea, and weather. It was a job characterized by
“miles of ocean and stacks of work.” Fog and storms were a constant
influence on workload and stress levels. Low pay, lack of supplies, and
ghosts all added to the challenge of warning mariners off the deadly
rocks.

Many of those interviewed were able to recall the role of the
lightkeeper during World War II, when enemy aircraft and submarines were
invading the coast.

As the book is based on oral-history interviews with “last
witnesses,” it is a valuable contribution to Canada’s social history
and a nice companion to all the lighthouses-as-buildings publications
available today.