| Goderich Breakwater, ON | |
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Description:
The harbour at Goderich was originally just the mouth of the Menesetung (Maitland) River, but in the 1830s, the Canada Company constructed two stone piers to provide protection for the anchorage.
Goderich is the oldest Canadian light station on Lake Huron and first consisted of a pair of range lights established in the early 1830s. Thomas Mercer Jones, a powerful land magnate with the Canada Company, sold the parcel of land overlooking the harbour on which the lighthouse was built to the Queen in the 1840s. The outer breakwaters were added to the harbour between 1904 and 1908, and a light was placed to mark the outermost end of each. To this day, the harbour continues to be vital to the Town of Goderich, providing the area's second largest employment base with representation of the mining, commercial fishing, storage, transportation, and recreational industries. In 2007, nearly 200 freighters called at the port to load their hulls with salt and grains. Sifto Salt operates the world's largest working salt mine, which extends for miles beneath Lake Huron at Goderich, while Goderich Elevators has a storage capacity of 2,000,000 bushels at the harbour. The two breakwater lights that mark the "Hole in the Wall" are essential navigational aids for the giant freighters that call at Goderich, especially when the westerlies are blowing.
References
Location:
Located at the end of the north breakwater in Goderich.
The lighthouse is owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. Grounds/tower closed. |
Pictures on this page copyright Kraig Anderson, used by permission.