The Old Fog House, Port Maitland, Nova Scotia
The Fog House
Here in the southern end of Nova Scotia, there are many lighthouses still. Folks come to the Province and see the light at Peggy’s Cove, near Halifax, it’s certainly the most famous. The Yarmouth harbour light, at Cape Forchu, though, is dare I say more scenic than its more well-known relative. Situated way out on a point, the Yarmouth lighthouse shows ships where the harbour entrance is, and keeps them safe from going aground on False Harbour. As a kid, part of the thrill of going to visit the lighthouse was to hear the fog horn. The booming
“Ba-rooomph” was almost deafening if one stood too near, and of course that’s just what we did.
In my village of Port Maitland, just 20 minutes from Yarmouth, we used to have a small lighthouse – it was built in 1881, and was situated right on the wharf where the lobster boats now tie up. Today, there is still a light, as Port Maitland still is a working fishing harbour, but it’s one of those lamps on top of a steel tower, so not the romantic lighthouse of old.
There is, however, an interesting building on the shore nearby. It’s the old Fog House – a building which used to house the fog horn for the harbour here, separate from the light on the wharf!
Here along the shore, we still hear the surf pounding, the wind rushing and the gulls crying as they circle about. The small building on the bank above the port is now empty and unused, the advent of GPS making fog horns pretty well obsolete. Progress, I suppose, but a sound I miss.
