Richard Hone was at his family cottage just west of Brockville on July 23 when he said lightning struck, and a thunderclap rang out so loudly that it shook the whole building.
Later that evening, Richard’s son Adrian saw something out in the water.
“He noticed an orange glow,” Hone said.
It turned out to be a raging fire devouring the Cole Shoal lighthouse, one of the oldest and most recognizable structures in the area.
According to Mary Alice Snetsinger, a conservation biologist, Cole Shoal was built in 1856 as one of many structures meant to light the way through the tiny islands in the St. Lawrence.
“Cole Shoal is the last…was the last remaining of that 1856 series,” said Snetsinger.
The lighthouse was decommissioned in the 1920s and left to waste away in the elements, but in the 1970s, Ontario Heritage Trust assumed responsibility for the lighthouse’s maintenance. A spokesperson for the Trust says it is currently assessing the situation before it moves forward and talks about rebuilding.
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For the many cottagers and boaters in the area, Cole Shoal was known as a local landmark — now there’s nothing left but ashes.
“That icon frames our reference point up river to the west. Every morning we sit on our seawall and watch the ships pass by and go into the crossover to the U.S. side,” Hone said.
“This morning all we saw was the pier.”
Mike Milne and Brian Burns are shoreline residents who also watched the Cole Shoal lighthouse burn. They have started a GoFundMe page for the reconstruction of the lighthouse, hoping to raise $50,000.
The two Thousand Islanders took a boat over to the shoal on Thursday to see the damage.
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“The thing that strikes me the most, and this is my first visit out here since it burned, is just the total devastation,” said Burns.
Although there is not much left of the 162-year-old structure, the two Brockville residents hope that the funds raised by the GoFundMe might help bring back at least part of their beloved piece of history.
“We’re hoping to raise money, what we would like, hope springs eternal to maybe reconstruct,” said Milne.
Neither of the men believed any part of the wooden structure would have survived, but they were hoping a cast iron railing that adorned the top of the lighthouse might have.
Sure enough, once they got out to the shoal on Thursday, they discovered the railing lying beneath a few inches of water off the shore of the shoal.
“It would be nice if, you know, if it could be put around a plaque,” said Milne.
The GoFundMe page has raised just over $1,500 as of Thursday, but the two men are hoping that since it’s in its early days, they might see more coming in the future.
Nevertheless, the final decision on any action lies with the Ontario Heritage Trust, who owns the shoal.
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