For the first time in 20 years, I am told, the Fort Niagara Lighthouse tower was open this weekend for the public to climb. In a program called Open Doors Niagara, buildings normally closed to the public were opened this weekend. Members of the Eastern Great Lakes Harbour Lights Collectors Club worked today, and will work tomorrow to assist park personnel in staffing the tower and answering questions from the public.
Jim
Johnson

Wonderful news Jim, Hopefully it will lead to a regular schedule of visiting hours.

Thank you to the members of the Eastern Great Lakes Harbour Lights Collectors Club who gave their time to help their adopted light. Hopefully your day was as pretty there as ours was - nice and sunny even if a little cool and breezy. The involvement of your club has been a great help to the light, and I am sure this involvement will conttinue for some time.

Hopefully someone will share some pictures???

Dave

We had a beautiful morning at the tower. Today it was Roger (Sonic), Mike and me playing guides. It was a bit cool, but the lantern room was nice and warm. It was so clear that from the top of the tower you could see Toronto across Lake Ontario (I believe something like 24+ miles). We had a steady group of people. One of them being a congressman who wondered why the tower wasn't opened on a regular basis (good question!).

We also had a special guest visit (actually he lives in Youngstown and knows the light quite well) -- Rick Lohr who is owner of International Chimney Company (movers of SE Block, Hatteras, etc.). Rick would also love to see the light opened back up to the public. This light really doesn't need a lot of work (compared to a lot of them), but the Fort has the lighthouse very low on their priority list. The Eastern Great Lakes HLCC is trying to move the lighthouse up on that list...



Patty

Welcome back and thanks for sharing the pic Patty. Glad you had a nice day. Hope you educated the Congressman on the importance of saving these historic symbols of our past.

Dave

One club member who I forgot to mention in yesterday's post was Sue MacNaughton. Sue is the owner of the Dory (the local store that sells HL) and is a great asset to the club. She is always there to be a go between with the club and the fort and is always donating items to the club to be given away or raffled off. It's members like Sue (and our other local dealers) who help make the club what it is!

Sue worked all day (10 - 4) having people sign waivers and handling the "souvie" store.

Thanks Sue!

I hope that the tower stays open to the public. I managed to visit Ft. Niagara a few years ago and was disappointed to not be able to climb the tower. Thanks for the great work that you are doing!