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Pelee Island Lighthouse

41.8320° N, 82.6391° W · Ontario · built 1833[1]

  • Grounds open
  • Last verified 2026-10

Not an active aid to navigation.

A weathered round stone tower at the wild northern tip of Pelee Island, the largest island in Lake Erie, this light was built in the 1830s to guide sailors through the rocky Pelee Passage. Dark since 1909 and rescued from ruin around 2000, it is reached by a walk through a nature reserve.

History

Pelee Island, about 42 square kilometres, is the largest island in Lake Erie and the southernmost inhabited place in Canada.[2] Ships passing between it and the mainland must use the Pelee Passage, a rocky channel that holds the remains of at least 15 shipwrecks, and in the early 1830s a lighthouse went up on the island's northern point to guide them.[2] Wikipedia and the Lighthouse Directory date it to 1833; Ontario Parks gives 1834.[2,1,3]

The tower is a round structure of rubblestone, about 18 metres (60 feet) tall, left as bare stone with a black lantern.[1] It served until 1909, after which it was abandoned. By the 1960s it had decayed into a picturesque ruin.[1]

A local group, the Relight the Lighthouse Committee, restored it in 1999 and 2000.[1] The work saved the tower but did not end its troubles: the Lighthouse Directory reports that it is still shored up with timbers and threatened by waves, and that rock has been piled around its base for protection.[1]

The lighthouse stands inside Lighthouse Point Provincial Park, a 96-hectare nature reserve established in 1985 on a spit at the island's northeastern tip. The reserve protects remnants of deciduous forest and wetland and rare species such as the blue racer snake, and it has no visitor facilities.[3] Reaching the tower means a walk of at least 1.5 kilometres from the end of East Shore Road, where there is parking.[1] The island itself is reached by ferry from the Ontario mainland, and the Lighthouse Directory notes service from Ohio as well.[3,1] The grounds are open, but the tower is closed.[1]

How to see it

Grounds open You can walk to or around the lighthouse; the tower itself is closed.

Best public viewpoint
At the tip of Lighthouse Point, reached by a walk of at least 1.5 km from the trailhead at the end of East Shore Road on Pelee Island; the reserve has no facilities.[3]
Tower climbs
No public tower climbs have been offered, as far as our sources show.
Operator
Ontario Parks
Last verified
Last verified 2026-10

Access details last verified 2026-10. Hours, tours and ownership change. Check the operator before you go. Pier and breakwater lights can be dangerous in wind and waves; obey posted closures and never enter private or Coast Guard property.

Questions people ask

How do you get to the Pelee Island Lighthouse?

Take a ferry to Pelee Island, then walk at least 1.5 km from the trailhead at the end of East Shore Road through Lighthouse Point Provincial Park, a nature reserve with no facilities. The tower is closed.

How old is the Pelee Island Lighthouse?

It dates from the early 1830s: 1833 in most sources, 1834 according to Ontario Parks. It went dark in 1909.

Nearby lighthouses

Nearby shipwrecks

Nearby · Sponsored

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Sources

  1. Lighthouses of Canada: Southwestern Ontario, Russ Rowlett, The Lighthouse Directory (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Accessed .
  2. Pelee, Ontario, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. Lighthouse Point Provincial Park, Ontario Parks. Accessed .

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