Quebec Harbour Range Lighthouse

Formerly located on Michipicoten Island to mark the entrance to Quebec Harbour.

Measuring twenty-six kilometres east to west and ten kilometres north to south, Michipicoten Island is the third-largest island in Lake Superior (after Isle Royale and Saint Ignace Island) and is blessed with numerous lakes and a fine bay on its southern shore known as Québec Harbour. As the island is sixty kilometres from Michipicoten Harbour, the nearest port on the mainland, fishermen and lighthouse keepers would typically remain on the island all season rather than risk unnecessary crossings.

Agate Island Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy Library and Archives Canada
In 1872, Parliament provided $8,000 for the construction of three new lights to assist the rapidly expanding trade on Lake Superior: one at Porphyry Point and two at Michipicoten Island. To reach Québec Harbour, mariners needed to pass between Davieaux Island and Hope Island, two long, skinny islands that lie one kilometre off the harbour’s entrance. Charles Perry built a small light on Agate Island, just inside the harbour, to guide mariners between the islands and into the harbour, and a larger light on the tip of the peninsula forming the eastern side of the harbour to serve vessels sailing along the lake between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.
As it needed to be seen at a greater distance, the main light, known as Michipicoten Island Light, was originally equipped with five No. 1 circular-burner lamps set in twenty-inch reflectors while the light on Agate Island had two flat-wick lamps set in sixteen-inch reflectors. Peter McIntyre, who had previously served as keeper of Point Pelee Lighthouse, was placed in charge of the Michipicoten Lights, which were placed in operation in the late summer of 1872. The total cost for the two lights at Michipicoten Island and the one on Porphyry Point came to $7.549.37. A fog bell was added to the main light in 1873 to help mariners find the harbour during foggy weather.