Mutton Bay is a community located on a protected bay along the Lower North Shore of Quebec. Originally named Baie-du-Portage after an Aboriginal portage in the vicinity, the community was renamed Mutton Bay in the early 1800s likely due to the flocks of sheep that foreign fishing fleets brought ashore to graze to maintain a meat supply.

In 1928, range lights were established on the western side of the entrance to Mutton Bay as a guide to vessels. These lights were exhibited from poles with a small white shed at their base and had a height of sixty-four and eighty-eight feet above the water. When the two lights, which were separated by 1,100 feet, were aligned, mariners could pass 100 yards east of the easternmost extremity of Seal Rock and 150 yards west of a rocky patch with thirteen feet of water over it a low tide.

In 1966, enclosed, white, wooden, pyramidal towers with a fluorescent orange front upper portion replaced the poles used for displaying the range lights. These wooden towers were used through at least 1985, but by 1995, skeletal towers had been put in place for displaying the range lights. In 2021, square, skeletal towers with orange trapezoidal daymarks having black vertical stripes were displaying fixed green lights to guide mariners into Mutton Bay. The range lights are now listed as Baie des Moutons Range.

References

1. Annual Report of the Department of Marine, various years.

Modern range lights mark the entrance to Mutton Bay today.

Find the closest hotels to Baie des Moutons Range (Mutton Bay Range) Lighthouse