Friends of Seacow Head Lighthouse celebrate as Shipwreck Point group still waits
CBC
The Friends of Seacow Head Lighthouse are finally the proud owners of the structure they say is a beacon for their community.
They officially received the keys from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Sept. 15, after more than 10 years of volunteer efforts.
"We were quite ecstatic because it was a 10-year wait," said Jim MacFarlane, treasurer of the Friends of the Seacow Head Lighthouse Inc.
"We started 10 years ago dealing with the DFO, and it was back and forth and back and forth, and there were some issues that had to be dealt with, lead and mercury issues, and the repairs to the lighthouse, which DFO did all that."
MacFarlane's great-great-grandfather was one of the builders of the lighthouse, and his great-grandfather was the first lighthouse keeper.
"We have a lot of work to do with cleaning up," MacFarlane said.
"But we're very, very happy to have it, and proud to maintain it and protect it for the rest of the generations to come behind us."
MacFarlane said Seacow Head Lighthouse is well known because it is one of the oldest lighthouses, built in 1864, and named Seacow Head for the walruses — or seacows — that were once plentiful in the nearby waters.
The lighthouse became famous worldwide when it was featured in the opening to the television series Road to Avonlea, based on the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
There was even a replica of Seacow Head Lighthouse built on the set in Ontario, to film scenes inside the lighthouse, with the exteriors filmed on Prince Edward Island.
"You wouldn't believe the number of people that have come down just because of that," MacFarlane said.
Thomas Sherry has a cottage next to Seacow Head Lighthouse, and has also spent the last 10 years working toward community ownership.
He's also a board member of the P.E.I. Lighthouse Association, which includes about 20 lighthouses across the province, including the eight that are currently open to the public.
"To the P.E.I. Lighthouse Association, it means that there's still a lot of interest out there in lighthouses across P.E.I., and it is still growing," Sherry said.
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