Cape Breton's Gabarus lighthouse saved from the sea

Just in time for the 300th anniversary of the tiny fishing community of Gabarus, Cape Breton, the local lighthouse has been saved from falling into the sea.

An excited clutch of locals turned out Friday to watch their beloved light, itself 125 years old, moved with care from its long-time location to a new concrete pad about 15 metres farther inland.

The move was a project of the Gabarus Lightkeepers Society, which won $50,000 in September to pay for it through a national crowdfunding campaign called This Lighthouse Matters.

Coastal erosion had chewed away so much of the cliff on which the lighthouse sat that it may not have survived another winter.

Society chair Janet McGillen monitored the procedure closely, as a crew painstakingly set down steel rails for the lighthouse to rest on and slide to its new home.

'Our history's been preserved'

"This is huge," she said of the process unfolding before her. "This is something we've been working on for over three years. It means that our history's been preserved.

"The history of Gabarus is tied up with the lighthouse and all of us are so excited. It's just wonderful."

Erosion has cut away at the cliff, sometimes quickly, leaving the lighthouse in a perilous position. One rain storm, for instance, washed away 1.5 metres, McGillen said.

A lighthouse is an icon in any community that has one, said Tim Menk, another member of the Lightkeepers Society. 

'Touchstone'

"It's in the central focus of everybody's viewscape," he said. "It's a touchstone, it's a place where people come to congregate and look at the beautiful seashore here.

"It's also meant the saving of lives for so many years of people who have been seafarers and their families, going back 200 years."

For the people of the community, Menk said the lighthouse is "something that they played around as children, that their fathers were protected by when they were out in the older-style fishing boats without GPS.

"It means everything to people as a symbol of Nova Scotia but for the village, it's a symbol of Gabarus."

McGillen said the timing of the move, right before the village's 300th anniversary, is perfect.

"It will welcome people home because we have a lot of people who've moved away who'll be coming back for our 300th," she said.

"And the first place they always come is to the lighthouse, [because] that's what they think about when they're away and think of home."