The bark Colborne left London on August 30, 1838, bound for Quebec with a cargo of spirits, palm oil and tallow. Built and launched just months earlier in Montreal, the Colborne would not survive the voyage. At 1:00 a.m., Thursday, October 16, it struck rock, seven miles below Port Daniel. Heavy seas washed over her, taking with it forty-two of the fifty-four crew and passengers. The remaining twelve clung to the rigging until morning when they were rescued by two schooners. Captain Kent and the first mate were among those lost. The second mate, along with eight crew members and three passengers were taken to Port Daniel.

Two lighthouses were built in Port Daniel seventy years later.

The first was built in 1902 at the outer end of the wharf at White Point. It was a square white lighthouse, twenty-nine feet high, which exhibited a fixed red light, with a focal plane of thirty-one feet and a range of eleven miles. Two years later, the tower was moved 100 feet to the outer end of the recently extended wharf. A hand horn was used to answer signals from steamers in the vicinity of the station during times of fog.

The second, a white, octagonal wooden lighthouse with a height of thirty-three feet, was constructed at West Point in 1906, seventy-five yards from the eastern extremity of the point. At the opening of navigation in 1907, the tower commenced exhibiting its fixed white light, produced by petroleum vapour burned under an incandescent mantle. As the point was roughly seventy feet above the bay, the light had a focal plane of 100 feet. The tower was built by Messrs. Chapados & Robichaud, of Gascon, under a $900 contract.

The wooden tower at West Point was destroyed by fire, prompting the erection of a twenty-two-foot-tall concrete tower in its place. Work on the lighthouse commenced in 1917 and was completed the following year at a cost of $1,690.80. In the interim, a provisional light was shown from the point in the form of a lens lantern atop a pole.

The octagonal concrete lighthouse continues to warn mariners of the dangerous reefs along the western approach to Port Daniel Bay, but it is now powered by electricity, with a signature of a white flash every five seconds. The all-white tower topped by a red lantern contains a spiral red iron staircase that leads to the lantern room.

Port Daniel reportedly received its name when Jacques Cartier gave his navigator the order "Port, Daniel" during a violent storm on Chaleur Bay. Charles Daniel, the navigator, obeyed, and the ship safely entered the protected waters of what is now Port Daniel Bay.

Keepers: Arthur Horrie (1907 - 1910), Velson Horrie (1911 - 1913), Isaac McKenzie (1914 - at least 1923).

References

1. Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, various years.
2. The Gulf and River St. Lawrence, U.S. Hydrograhic Office, 1908.
3. St. Lawrence Pilot, 1917.
4. Chaleur Chalets Resort website.

From Port-Daniel, travel south on QC 132 for roughly 3 km (2 miles) to Port-Daniel-Centre and then turn east on Route de la Pointe. The road will end after 1.6 km (1 mile) just outside the gate of Chaleur Chalets, a private vacation resort. You may ask permission at the resort to use their path that winds along the shore to reach the lighthouse. If you visit the lighthouse, please make a generous contribution in the donation box at the trailhead to help with maintenance. Note that Chaleur Chalets closed in 2017. The owner of the resort says that visitors may no longer reach the lighthouse due to shore erosion. It is possible to get a distant view of the lighthouse from the shoreline on the opposite of the mouth of the river.

The lighthouse is owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. Grounds open, tower closed.

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