The historic Pilot Bay Lighthouse, in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, dates back to the early 1900s and remained in use for almost ninety years. Post retirement it’s been preserved in place on a point overlooking gorgeous Kootenay Lake and easily reached via a short hiking trail. Spectacular scenery, a blast of lake air, and a little history awaits those who pay it a visit.
Access is off the marked Pilot Bay Lighthouse trail, off Pilot Bay Road and very near where it dead-ends. Pilot Bay Road branches off right at the ferry landing on Highway #3A and given the immediate area can be chaotic, especially if there’s a vessel docked, it can be easily missed. If you end up in a place called Crawford Bay or float across the lake and find yourself in Balfour you’ve missed the mark and should hang you head in shame.
Historic Pilot Bay Lighthouse: a little hike to a wonderful old building and a great viewpoint. With Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd).
A shout out to “Dale” for helping support our website and making this post possible. Be like Dale…
It’s a quick uphill hike to the lighthouse through the cool forest. The building soon comes in to view, then look out over the water and be in awe. The lake is long, aligns north/south and even though relatively narrow, the opposite shore is still many kilometres away. Flanked by steep mountains, as it is, might have you thinking you’re along some Norwegian fjord. That’s no and instead you’re at a deep, cold lake in the wilds of BC.
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The lake can be busy with pleasure craft and if you’re lucky you might spot the ferry too. The trip takes just over half an hour and feels more like an ocean voyage than a short little hop across the water. We rode the Osprey 2000 to get to Pilot Bay – it’s a free ride and an essential link in the highway’s system. It’s the only way across the middle portion of Kootenay Lake (it’s over 100km end to end) and can be a busy place in summer.
The Pilot Bay Lighthouse came on line in 1905 and assisted with navigation of commercial traffic. Mostly this comprised the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Lake Fleet, but there were other operators at times as well. The CPR remained the big player, however, and plied the lake from end to end and acted as a lifeline to the outside world.
They not only carried travellers but facilitated the delivery of freight to outlying communities. Even railcars were barged up and down Kootenay Lake to isolated lines and spurs. With the area rich with resources, timber and metallic minerals, there was a lot going on.
Over the years the need for the lighthouse diminished and by the the early 1990s it was decommissioned. The CPR stopped serving the lake in the late 1970s, but it was kept active for use by the general public for a time, till the end came. Sure, the lake is busier than ever, with pleasure craft, but they usually don’t travel at night anyway or have high-tech on-board navigation aids.
After retirement, the lighthouse was fixed up and is now part of the Pilot Bay Provincial Park (there’s another chunk of it across the bay). That it remained in use so long meant the building was kept up to the end, so not a daunting task to restore. Still, it required many volunteers, countless hours and financial help from donors.
While getting it ready they put in picnic tables, added a biffy to the site and made the building visitor friendly. It’s the last remaining inland lighthouse in British Columbia and that alone makes it a special place. Even today, it’s a visible landmark for boaters out on the lake.
A set of steep stairs take one up to the lantern room and an outside balcony. There’s even better views up there! Light was by oil and later acetylene lamps, but later still they were battery powered. By the late 1980s batteries were recharged by solar power.
The lighthouse was manned early on, but soon functions were automated. In this later scenario an attendant would drop by from time to time, to check on things and top off any tanks (pre-electrical phase), but otherwise only the occasional curious visitor stopped by.
It appears the doors were kept unlocked and this is suggested by information found on a sign inside. It reads like this:
Department of Transport, Aids to Navigation Branch, Pilot Bay Lighthouse. This important aid to Navigation was established in 1905. It originally had an oil lamp to guide the paddle wheel steamers on Kootenay Lake and from its vantage point serves as aid to navigation for most of the lake.
The light is now a 3.05 amp 12 volt bulb in a 250 millimetre lantern. Powered by two six volt battery packs, a photo-electric cell shuts off the light during daylight hours to conserve power. The light has a characteristic of one second light and eleven second dark and should a lamp burn out, the four position lamp-changer automatically moves the next lamp into the focal position
If you wish to see the equipment, feel free to enter but don’t damage of adjust the equipment, which is very delicate. Please close the doors on leaving. Thank you. Superintendent of lights.
That’s the most Canadian thing ever – welcome and come look around, but be nice.
From this promontory, the lighthouse is visible to approaching craft on all three arms of Kootenay Lake. The west branch is much narrower and visible off in the distance in one of our photos on the west shore. Kootenay Lake is part of the Kootenay River watershed and the river enters at the south and exits off the west end.
The Pilot Bay Lighthouse is painted in traditional white with red and easily spotted from the Kootenay Bay-Balfour Ferry. It’s on a jut of land that makes up Pilot Bay (east of a lighthouse and unseen from this position) and it’s the most sheltered inlet on the lake. Should a storm whip up it’s a safe spot for ship’s pilots to wait out the weather. The lake is so large and can sometimes have a bad attitude.
The lighthouse has been historically recognized by the province since the 1960s.
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Date of Adventure: May, 2023. Location(s): Pilot Bay, BC. Article references and thanks: Canada’s Historic Places – HistoricPlaces.ca, Friends of West Kootenay Parks, LighthouseFriends.com and BC Parks.
(A long read) After twelve years it's time to put a face to the name and come clean on something. That's rarely-seen Chris in the photo, one half of Team BIGDoer, my best friend for almost thirty years and orchestrator of everything you see here. For his entire adult life, he's battled a deep depression.
Mostly it's manageable, but there are extended bouts where it's crippling and his life comes to a grinding halt. Sometimes there are days or weeks where he's lost. Sleep does not come easy at this time and further aggravates the issue. As he ages, it's worsening and seems intent on destroying him from the inside.
If you see a lack of posts here, or ones poorly worded, confusing or simply off, it's from one of these periods.
Through all this, he remains as kind, thoughtful and loving as ever, but is somewhere else. To the family, it's just Chris and accepted as it should be. The kids and grandkids adore him no less. Until today, however, this has been hidden from the outside world, although closer friends and some readers were probably already suspect of his condition. I hope admitting this does not break the site.
He finds clarity when we're out and doing things, hiking or documenting something historic and it's only THE reason this page and our website exists. It's therapy. Then he's a new and passionate person, but the monster as he calls it always returns. The Beer Parlour Project has brought out a side I've never seen and when out in the field he's never been so on point and confident.
This post is not for sympathy but to inform. Just so you know where he is and here's what you can do to help (a last ditch request)...
If you see a missed comma or oddly worded sentence in a post, please be kind. You'll probably see his uncertainty when he's off and be nice there too. But if you like what you see, even if the write up could be presented better, post your encouragement. Say something and say it loud...it's important and will keep him sharing. Help Chris get better by cheering him on.
Other than some photos that are mine, everything else comes from him. All the tiring research and the writing (he admits he's NOT a writer), are his.
Chris puts every dollar he makes into this "project of a lifetime", and it's supplemented by donations from readers who enjoy the content. If you want to help...
Admittedly he was not thrilled with the idea of posting this but agrees it probably should be said, even if it makes him uneasy. He doesn't like appearing in photos either. He's so shy, thinks he looks goofy and hates his husky eyes. I love them and they're windows into a wonderful, complex and quiet, but tortured soul. It breaks my heart when he's in a bad space.
This image comes thanks to photographer Arturo Pianzola and was captured while exploring the historic Riverview Mental Hospital in Coquitlam BC. Chris thought since he was in the area last year, he'd stop by to visit with a grandfather he never really knew, who spent his last years at the facility and is buried on the grounds.
Thanks for listening and your understanding. Hopefully we'll see you next week. Johanna (Connie).
Journey of Natty Gann (Disney 1985) and the same location in the Crowsnest Pass 2014. We're visiting the Pass over the new year, as we often do, and this time we'll be staying at a house that appears (briefly) in the film. How cool, eh? Chris has decided it's time on this visit to reshoot this and other Natty Gann comparison shots we did from ten years ago. Stay tuned!
This scene was shot in historic downtown Coleman and shows the former Holyk's Grocery. It was built in the early 1900s and the store closed in the '60s. _______
Exploring history with Chris & Connie from Off the Beaten Path. Thanks, Johanna (Connie).
From 2015. Rob Pohl and his strange old-style view camera joined us in documenting the Laing House (with permission). Head down to the comments to see an amazing coincidence with something I found inside.
From the Crossley slides, it's an undated view of Towers School, out near Cluny Alberta. It was originally called Swastika School but that's before the word and symbol were ruined by negative connotations. Built 1922. Gone? _______
Exploring history with Chris & Connie from Off the Beaten Path. Thanks, Chris.
The same alley in downtown Calgary's west end, in the 1970s & today. You have to look hard to see the connection! The area was quite run down back then and is in stark contrast to all the shiny condo towers seen present day. Calgary Place West, an apartment block, appears in both images although it's barely a sliver in ours. Check the comments for more info.
Photo credit: James Tworow collection. _______
Exploring history with Chris & Connie from Off the Beaten Path. Thanks, Chris.
Lost highways (2022): a section of old #93 in Southeastern BC. That BIGDoer-mobile is gone now but quite famous and had a following of its own. Old mine roads, cow paths, 4x4ing across fields - no problem and people would recognize us out in remote areas just by this car. _______
Exploring history with Chris & Connie from Off the Beaten Path. Thanks, Chris.
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