Nujio'qoniik News

Cape St. George Lighthouse

In 1913, work began on a fog alarm station on Cape St. George. The fog alarm station commenced operation in 1914, and then in 1915, the following Notice to Mariners advertised that a light was being added to the station: Position: On the extreme point of Cape St. George.

Description: Diaphone, operated with air, compressed by an oil engine. The diaphone will give one blast of 2.5 seconds duration every minute, thus: blast 2.5 seconds, silent interval 57.5 seconds.

Structures: Engine house, keepers dwelling and storehouse, each one-story, flat-roofed.

Character: Occulting white light, visible 5 seconds and eclipsed 5 seconds alternately.

Elevation of light: 95 feet.

Order: Fourth dioptric.

Remarks: The light will be visible from all points seaward. A new cylinder head and circulating pump were supplied to the station in 1918.

The Keepers of the Light House were, Mr. Guff from 1914 to 1917 and Eugene Cornect from about, 1917 to about 1921.

On October 14, 1930, fire destroyed the light and fog alarm Station at Cape St. George, forcing the light and fog alarm to be discontinued. The Station was not rebuilt.

The closest navigation aids to Cape St. George today are lights at the Harbour at Cape St. George, (Rouzes Brook

A portion of the stations concrete foundation survived, and in 1972 there was a museum built atop it in Lands End Park. The museum is no longer standing.

Eugene Cornect married in 1917 not long after returning from the war and raised eight sons and five daughters. The 1935 census, shows that he eleven children at the time, ranging in age from 17 down to six months. The oldest seven children were likely born at the station on Cape St. George. After fire destroyed the station, Keeper Cornect moved into another home on the cape and turned to farming. He raised thirteen head of cattle and fourteen sheep, and operated a sawmill for some time. After he suffered a fall later in life, his leg that had been injured in the war, had to amputated as it had never properly healed. When asked what he like best about his life as a keeper, he replied; When the ice was on the shore, the lighthouse didn not operate because there were now boats. We had a good time then.

Sources: "Some of the information was published in a Newspaper article 1972. A Marriage License and a 1921 Census show that Eugene Cornect was keeper of the Station from 1917 through at least 1921."

Thanks to Betty Cornect-Simon and Nancy Cornect MacEachern for contributing to this story.

Photo attached was an old photo I saw in an old newspaper article. The photo was very dark so I colorized it and enhanced to make it more clear (Jasen Benwah).

Source: The Georgian,

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