George Island Light is a lighthouse located on George Island that lies in the middle of the North Basin of Lake Winnipeg in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located approximately 400 km (250 mi) north from Winnipeg, and approximately half-way between the shore communities of Grand Rapids and Poplar River.
The lighthouse structure is 15.5 metres (51 ft) tall square pyramidal steel skeletal tower painted red, with enclosed lantern room on top, painted white. The lantern has a focal plane of 20 metres (66 ft) and it displays a white flash every four seconds visible in all directions. The light is maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard.
The lighthouse was built in 1906 to aid navigation in the treacherous North Basin. It had a lighthouse keeper until 1981. The George Island Light was the last lighthouse to be fitted as a fully automatic light. The last lighthouse keeper, Mr. Willard Olson, served on George Island every year starting from 1951 until 1981.
Famous quotes containing the words island and/or light:
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Signal smokes, war drums, feathered bonnets against the western sky. New messiahs, young leaders are ready to hurl the finest light cavalry in the world against Fort Stark. In the Kiowa village, the beat of drums echoes in the pulsebeat of the young braves. Fighters under a common banner, old quarrels forgotten, Comanche rides with Arapaho, Apache with Cheyenne. All chant of war. War to drive the white man forever from the red man’s hunting ground.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)