Keeping the History of the Lighthouse Keepers Alive
by Globe Content Studio
This article is part of a series about the wonderful people who make Newfoundland and Labrador an unforgettable place to visit. Warm and welcoming, fun-loving and funny to the core, they create experiences that don’t just leave an impression – they stay with you long after you’ve left. Say hello to some of the folks who’ll make you feel at home – no matter where you're from.
Valerie O’Brien makes Labrador Tea inside the Point Amour Lighthouse.
When Valerie O'Brien leads a tour of the Point Amour Lighthouse, located on the south coast of Labrador, she brews a pot of Labrador tea for visitors to sample. It's a way to share a small taste of the area's culinary heritage.
“We just put boiling water over the leaves and let it steep,” she says of this member of the rhododendron family with a minty taste. “It’s [good] for colds, coughs, the flu.”
A life-long resident of nearby town West St. Modeste, Valerie uses Labrador tea in many ways, employing techniques passed down from older folks in her life and experimenting with some of her own. “I can dye wool and material with it. It's a golden yellow [colour], very pretty,” she says. “I also make tinctures with it. I make lip balm, hand salve, body butter. Whatever I can make with it, I will do.
”Valerie's skills with Labrador tea are reflective of her extensive knowledge of the area's vegetation, stemming from a childhood love of plants. She shares that knowledge when guiding visitors around the Point Amour Lighthouse, which was built in the 1850s when the Straight of Belle Isle became an important trans-Atlantic shipping channel.
First hired 18 years ago to demonstrate traditional crafts like rug-hooking, Valerie says she “fell in love with the lighthouse station and the history of the area. And I love to tell stories.”
Soon, local people were bringing Valerie old books and journals, filled with stories that she then was able to pass on to visitors. For nearly one-and-a-half centuries, the lighthouse keepers of the Point Amour Lighthouse tirelessly tended to its light and foghorn, keeping countless ships and sailors safe. (One prominent family of lighthouse keepers, the Wyatts, stewarded Point Amour for 84 years.)
“Some visitors only want to hear the main information about the lighthouse, but other people want to hear about the lives of the people who lived here,” says Valerie, who’s always more than happy to oblige.
She says one visit in particular has stayed with her over the years: a visually-impaired couple who came with their grandchild to explore the lighthouse. “Is it okay for them to touch things?” the granddaughter asked, explaining that this was how her grandparents “saw” the world around them.
In one of the bedrooms, Valerie told the story of a hand-carved dresser that belonged to a lighthouse keeper’s wife, Emma, which her husband had made out of wood from a shipwreck. As a special accommodation, Valerie let them go behind the usually roped-off area and touch the piece of furniture as she spoke.
“It was like I could see in their faces that they saw what I was telling them,” says Valerie, who was moved to tears. “It touched me so much. That day changed me. When they got ready to leave, the lady turned around and said, ‘Thank you for making the walls talk.’”
In all the years she's been a guide at the lighthouse, Valerie says there’s one question almost everyone asks: Is it haunted?
“There are things that have happened that I cannot explain,” she says of the 160-year-old structure, which is the second tallest lighthouse in Canada. “One evening, my supervisor and I put some maps in the house so we could place them in alphabetical order the next day. When we came back the next day, they were in order.”
But Valerie will be the first to let you know there is so much more to this beautiful spot than a spooky tale or two. She tells the story of the HMS Raleigh, a British warship that crashed into the rocks below the lighthouse during a particularly thick fog. The ship was first spotted by a local woman called Isabella Davis who was out looking for a lost cow. She ran back to the nearby village of L’Anse Amour to raise the alarm, and all but 11 of the 700 sailors aboard were rescued.
“Some of the higher-up men and the captain stayed at her house for a month,” adds Valerie. “In appreciation, the captain gave her the piano and some chairs from the ship.” Now, every year on August 8, there’s a re-enactment of the rescue where it happened 200 metres from the lighthouse. Valerie points out that everything inside the lighthouse, from flooring to furniture, is "almost just as it was" back in the 1800s. But it's more than just a museum, it's a living slice of history.
"We get a lot of people walking in and saying, 'Wow, it's so beautiful.' It's not your average 160 year old building," she says. "To me, it's home."
Do you have a tale to tell about a visit to Newfoundland and Labrador?
Planning a trip? Let's have a chat.
© Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism
Sign Up