Kincardine, ON 
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The need for a harbour and lighthouse at Kincardine was driven by two main industries. By 1866, a fleet of six fishing boats was sailing from the harbour each morning to set their nets out in Lake Huron, and large deposits of salt at a depth of one thousand feet had been discovered at Kincardine in 1868. Wells were sunk to bring a briny solution to the surface, and various means were then used to either boil or evaporate off the water leaving the valuable salt crystals. In 1875, two salt companies produced 187,000 barrels of salt, a good portion of which was exported to the United States.
In 1877, Darius Smith, Superintendent of Lights above Montreal, visited Kincardine and made the following report on the pierhead light and its companion range light that had recently been erected.
Supplied this Station on 23rd July, at 6 p.m. It is a white wooden trellis work building, 30 feet high from the wharf to deck of lantern. The lantern is of wood and has five mammoth flat-wick lamps with 18-inch reflectors, and shows a fixed red catoptric light. The lantern is six feet four inches in diameter; size of glass, 30 x 36 inches; size of ruby glass, 19x19 inches.The range light is a very slight building, the foundation of which is very rotten and the wharf on which it stands is in a very bad condition. The lantern used in this range light has to be carried by hand from the outer lighthouse, which I would recommend should be remedied and a new building put up.
The lights are well kept.
Mr. Wm. Kay, Keeper, has a family of nine.
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This new Kincardine Lighthouse, which remains standing, consists of an octagonal, sixty-three-foot tower, having a vertical row of windows facing each of the cardinal directions and being perched atop a two-story keeper’s dwelling. Besides serving as the rear range light for entering the harbour, the new lighthouse also functioned as a lake coast light, displaying a fixed white light varied by red flashes every fifteen seconds. In 1910, a fourth-order Fresnel lens, which was illuminated by an incandescent oil vapour lamp and produced a white flash every twenty seconds, replaced the original catoptric light.
Keeper William Kay wrote a letter to his superiors in 1885 offering to terrace and sod the grounds of the station, and “plant a few trees, until it would look like an oasis in this desert of sand; and somewhat more becoming the fine house.” In the same letter, Kay requested a fence to prevent his wood from being stolen and the laundry from getting dirty from boys running under the clothesline. To save expenses, Kay was asked if he couldn’t find time to build the fence himself. Perhaps a bit offended by the question, Kay responded, “…That is impossible, and in the summer, I can’t see where any light keeper could find time to build a fence, I have to sleep half the day – if it can be called a sleep when there is such a racket on the wharf and at the fish shanties every day – and then it takes the most of the afternoon to do my cleaning and get ready for the evening, some days I have an hour or two to spare, but to go and work hard out doors would be a very bad preparation for my long watch at night, it would be different if one had an assistance to take half the night watch, but as it is, I do not see my way clear to build a fence.”
Thomas McGaw replaced William Kay as keeper in 1899, and three years later he was involved in the rescue of the crew of the schooner Anna Maria, whose remains can still be seen along the shore at Kincardine. Loaded with coal for the Kincardine waterworks, the Anna Maria was nearing the harbour on the stormy night of October 7, 1902, when the piers were buried in the foam of a westerly gale. About ten p.m. faint cries were heard from the harbour, and those who investigated were amazed to discover the Anna Maria aground near the south pier with seas breaking over her.
Keeper Tom McGaw’s father, known as Big Tom, rounded up three of his cousins and launched a boat to rescue the crew. The men reached the stranded vessel and took the crew of six aboard, but their fishing boat soon swamped, spilling its occupants into the raging water. Three of the rescuers and two of the crew managed to make their way back to the Anna Maria, but Captain Gordon, a female cook, two other crewmembers, and one of the rescuers drowned.
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On July 9, 1902, the front range lighthouse on the north pier was struck by lightning and burned down. Keeper Thomas McGaw displayed a fixed red light from a lantern hoisted atop a twenty-eight-foot pole as a temporary measure until a new front lighthouse was placed in operation in May 1903. Situated 1,200 feet from the inner light, the new outer light consisted of a thirty-three-foot, steel, skeletal frame, “square in plan, with sloping sides, painted brown, surmounted by a white, octagonal, wooden lantern.” A seventh-order lens was used to produce a fixed red light.
On May 1, 1903, a steam fog siren, established in connection with the town’s waterworks machinery, was placed in operation. The siren was mounted atop the white-brick waterworks building, situated on the shore north of the harbour entrance, and it emitted a two-and-a-half-second blast every forty-five seconds when needed. In 1931, an electrically driven fog alarm was established at the front range, and one remains in operation there today.
The range lights were electrified in 1925, and today, the main light can be aligned with a sector light at the end of the north pier to guide sailors into the harbor.
The job of keeper was discontinued in 1977, and in 1980 the lighthouse was leased to the Kincardine Yacht Club, which uses the dwelling for a clubhouse and a small museum that is open to the public.
On summer evenings, a bagpiper can be seen atop Kincardine Lighthouse at dusk piping while the sun sets. This pageantry is in honor of the town’s Scottish heritage and to keep alive the Legend of Donald Sinclair. The story goes that in 1856 on a cold October day, a small ship left the Port of Goderich bound for Kincardine with Donald Sinclair and his immigrant Scottish family aboard. As the ship approached Point Clark, the sky turned black and a strong breeze started to blow out of the west, churning up the waters of Lake Huron. Late afternoon turned to dusk as the vessel slowly made its way north along the shore, and the captain began to fear that he would not make Kincardine before nightfall.
Concerned for his family, Donald Sinclair retired to the ship’s hold, prayed for safe passage, and then retrieved his bagpipes and started to play a lament. The heavy drone of the pipes along with their sharp melody drifted across the waters to Kincardine and prompted a fellow Scotsman to join in the lament. Hearing the second piper, the captain was certain he was nearing Kincardine and was able to safely follow the sound into the harbour. For many years after his family’s safe voyage, Donald Sinclair could be found at dusk at the harbour, where he would be piping down the sun in honor of the Phantom Piper who had saved his family.
In December 2008, Kincardine Lighthouse was designated a Heritage Building by the town council. This move was partly prompted by the outcry that occurred earlier in the year when vinyl siding and modern windows were added to the historic lighthouse.
Head Keepers: Ross Robertson (1874), William Robert Kay (1874 – 1899), Thomas McGaw, Jr. (1899 – 1913), William G. Temple (1913 – 1928), Donald Martin (1928 – 1929), Oran Westell (1929 – 1955), Myron Hall (1955 – 1956), Alonzo Burley (1956 - 1978).
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