Triangle Island Lighthouse - Sooke, British Columbia, Canada
Posted by: 
The A-Team
N 48° 23.046 W 123° 42.354
10U E 447735 N 5359233
Located at the corner of Phillips Road and Sooke Road at the Sooke Region Museum in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada.
Waymark Code: WMJAFC
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 10/19/2013
Views: 6
In 1910, a lighthouse was constructed on Triangle Island, a remote island located about 45 kilometres from the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The lighthouse was built on the highest point at an elevation of about 210 metres, where it was planned to be one of the most important lights on the coast and visible from over 50 miles away. However, during one year, the lightkeepers reported 240 days when fog or low cloud obscured the light. The island is also regularly subjected to hurricane-force winds, making habitation on the exposed peak difficult and miserable. Rumour has it that the dog of one of the lightkeepers was blown away!
In 1919, the marine department acknowledged its mistake and decommissioned the lighthouse. In 1920, the lantern room was moved to the Estevan Point Lighthouse on the west coast of Vancouver Island, but nobody seems to know what happened to the first-order Fresnel lens from Triangle Island.
On June 20, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-26 fired 25-30 5.5" shells at the Estevan Point Lighthouse, the only shelling of Canadian soil in either of the World Wars. All of the shells missed the lighthouse, giving the sub's commander "the embarrassing position of being unable to hit the broadside of a continent" according to an official history.
In the 1980s, the original Triangle Island lantern room and the first-order Fresnel lens from Estevan Point (not the Triangle Island lens, but one identical to it) were removed and put into storage at the Coast Guard base in Victoria. In 2004, the Sooke Region Museum approached the Coast Guard about acquiring the lantern room and lens, and they were installed on a short concrete tower at the current location in 2005. The completed structure was dedicated on June 26, 2005.
Original Location: N 50° 51.740 W 129° 04.940
How it was moved: Disassembled
Type of move: Region to Region
Building Status: Museum
Related Website: [Web Link]
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