Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of Bécancour. The city is approximately halfway between Montreal and Quebec City and is named for the fact Saint-Maurice River has three channels at its confluence with the Saint Lawrence, being divided by two islands, Potherie and Saint-Quentin island.

In 1908, the following Notice to Mariners advertised the establishment of range lights at Trois-Rivières by the Department of Marine:

Range light towers, erected by the Government of Canada at Three Rivers, River St. Lawrence, to mark the channel leading past the city water front and the mouth of the St. Maurice river, will be put in operation on the 1st July, 1908.

Each tower consists of a steel skeleton structure, square in plan, with sloping sides, painted brown, surmounted by an enclosed wooden watchroom and a square wooden lantern. The upper portion of the side of the steel frame facing the channel is covered with wooden slats to render it more conspicuous as a daymark. The watchroom, the lantern and the slats are painted white.

The lights are fixed white lights, which should be visible 11 miles in the line of range. Each illuminating apparatus is dioptric of the fourth order.

The front tower stands 7/8 mile above the west side of the mouth of St. Maurice river, and 300 feet back from the water’s edge.

The height of the tower from its base to the top of the ventilator on the lantern is 47 feet. The light is elevated 51 feet above the summer level of the river.

The back tower stands 1,800 feet S. 71° 5’ W. from the front tower. The height of the tower from its base to the top of the ventilator on the lantern is 81 feet. The light is elevated 85 feet above the summer level of the river.

The lights in one, bearing S. 71° 5’ W., led up from the intersection of their alignment with that of Cape Madeleine lower range lights to the bend at Three Rivers Shoals gas buoy. No. 59 C.

The front tower stood on a concrete pier that was roughly eight feet high and twenty-six feet square at its top, while the rear tower was erected on four concrete blocks. Goold, Shapley & Muir, of Brantford, Ontario provided the two-section front tower for $337.85 and the taller rear tower for $668.50. Day labour, under the supervision of the Montreal agency, constructed the foundations and erected the towers at a cost of $2,260.49.

J.W. Luckerhoff was hired as the first keeper of the range lights at an annual salary of $120. A succession of keepers cared for the range lights over the years, with most serving for just a couple of years.

In 1963, a Notice to Mariners indicated that the lights of Three Rivers Range were being displayed from new structures. Today, there are no range lights at Trois-Rivières.

Keepers: J.W. Luckerhoff (1908 – 1911), Henry Roy (1911 – 1914), Jules Bellefeuille (1914 – 1916), P.D. Forest (1916 – 1921), J. Bellefeuille (1921), J. Moffett (1921 – 1923), E. Bergeron (1923 – ).

References

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

No range lights exist at this location today.

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