Transcript
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Hi, friends. Welcome back to foggy oak scary tales.
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This week we have a true story about my family's visit to the point Prim Lighthouse on Prince Edward Island this summer, and the ghost we met while touring the lighthouse.
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Join us for a cozy exploration of a very special lighthouse, and it's very special ghost Michael.
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Over the summer, my family took a trip to Prince Edward Island, which is Canada's smallest province in terms of both land and population.
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It's known as the Gentle Island, situated north of Nova Scotia and cradled protectively between Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island and New Brunswick.
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While PEI is sheltered from some of the most brutal sea weather, it has its fair share of rocky shorelines, harsh storms and blinding fog.
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That is how this small island came to be home to 61 lighthouses and range light buildings over time, with around 35 still active today.
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As the PEI Lighthouse Society tells us, that amounts to 1 lighthouse every 34 square miles, which happens to be the highest concentration of lighthouses for a province or state in North America.
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It's a lot of lighthouses to help guide ships safely into harbor or around the island.
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We happen to be staying near Peis oldest lighthouse, the point Prim lighthouse, and decided to make a trip there 1 sunny morning in June.
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Constructed in 1845, it is one of only two round brick lighthouses in Canada.
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Originally built to help guide ships into the major harbour at Charlottetown, the capital of PE I, the point from Lighthouse helped ships navigate the challenging N Umberland Strait in the Atlantic Ocean.
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To find the lighthouse, you drive down one of Peis's famous red dirt roads, which during this time of year were lined with flowering lupins, which are conical flowers in purples and pinks and whites which create a perfect foreground to rolling red potato fields and the hazy ocean beyond.
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As you might expect from the name point, Prim Lighthouse sits out on a rounded point surrounded by a rocky coastline.
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The Round Lighthouse is a crisp white with a cheerful red adorning lighthouse tower and entrance door.
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In appearance, it is singularly charming.
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When you walk up to it, a sign on the lighthouse door directs you to the nearby keepers cottage and welcome center and gift shop to purchase a ticket.
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We walked across the lawn to the keeper's cottage, also painted in a crisp white with a cheerful red roof.
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The center includes a wonderful gift shop stocked with books and treasures from local artists, and the kids, of course, were immediately drawn to the display.
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We promised to take them after the tour and walked up to the kiosk to purchase tickets.
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The two women running the operation that morning clearly loved the lighthouse and their role in overseeing it. And of course, in introducing others to its history.
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We called the kids over and were given our instructions and overview along with our tickets.
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Now the first level is the Museum of sorts. You can learn more about the history of the point from Lighthouse and even try out an old fashioned fog horn that you crank to run. We'll see if we can hear you try it from inside the shop. The first woman enthused.
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And then you'll go up to see the rest of the lighthouse. Are all of you OK on stairs? The second woman asked.
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We all nodded, the kids leaning forward with interest. All right, good. Now, bear in mind, you'll need to go one by one, up those stairs, and when you come back down, we suggest you come down backwards. The stairs are steep and narrow and can be a bit of a tight squeeze up towards the top.
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Be cautioned.
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I began to have worried images of getting stuck squeezing between the floors of the lighthouse, but the kids seemed even more eager now.
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There's one other thing we should tell you about. The first woman began. Do you girls believe in ghosts?
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The kids nodded enthusiastically. My oldest asked why our lighthouse has a ghost, she replied. Don't worry, I don't want you to worry. He's a friendly ghost, but we like to warn people so they aren't surprised by him.
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His name is Michael, and he's most often found in the bedroom on the 2nd floor. You can look for him if you like. He loves kids and sometimes he enjoys hiding under the bed. He was one of the light housekeepers for many years and he loved it here.
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The girls were wide eyed in surprise at this point. The woman smiled and said or not, if you prefer, but he always appreciates when people say hi. We think. Let us know if you see him.
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We thanked them and took our tickets walking back across the sunny yard to the lighthouse door.
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OK, kids, what do you think? I asked them. I'm going to find Michael. My daughter Rory crowd practically galloping into the lighthouse.
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What do you think, Kathy? I asked.
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I think we should help Rory find him, she responded.
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Are you going to look for him? I wondered. I'll help Rory find him, she replied, following her younger sister through the door.
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My husband and I smiled at each other, appreciating that there was ghostly lore to go along with the lighthouse, but not really believing there was anything or any one at all. In the ghostly vein to find within.
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The beautiful sunny day and cloudless sky didn't particularly lend themselves to thoughts of spectres.
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As promised, the first floor of the lighthouse had large wall displays on the history. Original pictures of the lighthouse, a 3D model, and the old crankle foghorn.
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Oh, let's try the foghorn. My husband said to the kids. But they had taken one look around the room and made a beeline for the stairs, which appeared to be freshly painted in a warm grey, while the treads of the stairs were the same. Happy red of the lighthouse door.
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A helpful Gray stripe was painted along the wall of the round lighthouse to mark the location of the stairs as well.
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Steep stairs climb at your own.
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Risk a sign on the wall declared.
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I'm not usually afraid of heights or stairs, but these stairs looked like they went almost straight up and I found myself feeling a little nervous. What if we ran into someone else taking a tour of the lighthouse at the same time?
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We decided to send my husband David up first with the girls in the middle and me bringing up the rear. That way I could catch them if anyone fell backwards and David could let us know if someone else was coming and we needed to get out of the way.
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One by one, we ascended the steps carefully, holding on to the handrail and placing our feet.
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Sure enough, the second landing brought us into the cozy, historically outfitted bedroom of the lighthouse keepers.
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Hello, Michael. We're here taking a tour of your lovely lighthouse. I sat as I pulled myself onto the landing. Hi, Michael.
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Rory yelled, moving confidently into the room. Hi, Michael, Cathy said, more cautiously.
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David, not believing any of this for a.
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Minute said nothing.
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I admired the bedroom slash primary living quarters of the lighthouse keepers of the past, a cast iron stove with a red and white tea kettle atop it took up the center of the room while a wash stand and table lined one wall around the side of a center support post. A small bed was tucked, covered in a Plaid blanket.
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A window set into the wall of the lighthouse LED in the morning sun, but one of the first things I noticed when we entered that room was the temperature difference. It was noticeably colder than the ground floor.
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Goosebumps ran across my forearms as the hair on them.
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Stood up.
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From the chill.
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From the ghost.
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Where's Michael? Rory demanded, waving her hands over the bed and pulling the bed skirt up to peek underneath. I don't see any one, she said in an exasperated tone.
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Maybe Michael's feeling shy. I suggested it. Sure feels a lot colder in here to me. Maybe that's Michael's way of saying hello.
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Maybe Rory grudgingly.
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Reed, why don't we keep going? David asked us, clearly ready to move along.
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Say bye to Michael for now, kids, I advised.
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The three of us said goodbye and that we'd be back soon and followed David, who had already begun making his way up the second layer of steps.
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These stairs were even narrower and steeper than the first set.
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Fortunately, no one else seemed to be in the lighthouse at all, so we took our time moving to.
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The next landing.
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I think Michael is probably just waiting for.
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Us up top.
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Rory said firmly as we began to climb because he definitely wasn't under the bed.
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This third level had more information about the lighthouse's history lighting the walls. The floor was ringed with tables displaying the different generation of lights that had been used as beacons, giving you a great sense for how technology has changed over time and of how hard it used to be to maintain the lights the original beacons.
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Were used for only four years, from 1845 to 1840.
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Nine, basically. These lamps were fueled with seal oil and.
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Didn't really cast enough light because the reflected rays coming off of those parabolic reflectors just couldn't cast far enough out to see to warn ships. 1849 saw a transition to kerosene lamps, and the lighthouse keepers now also had to trim 12 kerosene Wicks every day.
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Several other iterations of lamps were used over the years, and they got less intensive to maintain with the advent of electricity, but it's easy to imagine what a hard job it was to climb all those stairs in all kinds of weather to make sure those lights were shining and bright for the ships that depended on them.
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After we had looked at the lights, we moved to the next set of stairs, which brought us to an even smaller landing where we discovered a final set of stairs that twisted part way up with the sign warning you firmly to watch your head.
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Read good advice because the Hatch that opens into the tower was narrow and has a wide lip, making it easy to conk yourself as you come through the open hatch door.
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The kids wanted to charge immediately up that final set of steps, steeper and narrower still than their prior brethren, so we carefully made our way up to the top of the lighthouse, emerging through the Hatch and into the tower itself.
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The point Prim tower is ringed by expansive windows and has the beacon light in the center. The red hatched floor was complemented by the red metal of the safety cage surrounding the outside of the tower.
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The view from the top was breathtaking, showing us the minimal land of the point surrounded by the wide expanse of the Atlantic. The tide was low while we were there, so we saw the rocky shoreline and the beds of Irish Moss, which is the type of red algae that grow along the rocky ocean floor near the coastline.
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We could see fog at a distance, but it was far away and did nothing to obscure our view as we admired the beautiful land and seascape spread out below us.
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After taking a family picture, Rory walked back towards the Hatch. Well, Michael isn't up here after all, so let's go back down so I can find him, she chirped happily as she gestured to the stairs. David and I took one last appreciative look at the view, and then decided that.
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I would go down first backwards as recommended. The kids would be in the middle and David would bring.
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Up the rear I took a deep breath because going backwards down the steep, narrow stairs felt scary and then began to carefully pick my way down.
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Steps the kids had no interest in revisiting any of the levels besides the lighthouse keepers quarters, so we went down, down, down until we reached the bedroom again and again. It was cooler than any other spot in the lighthouse. Michael Rory wheedled.
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Come say hi.
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She picked her way around the room again, looking for him, including under the bed. Of course. I don't know what we'd do if she really did see him, and I don't know if she really did see him, but I quickly said OK, well, it seems like Michael doesn't want to come out today, so let's just say thank you for letting us see the lighthouse.
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And uh, go check out that gift shop.
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The kids were quite amenable to going to the gift shop and agreed readily to following me down. The final set of stairs and out of the.
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Lighthouse. But as I moved back over to the stairwell to prepare myself for a final descent, I felt an even colder patch of air sweep over me. Goosebumps and raised hair rippled.
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Crossed my arms again and it certainly felt to me like Michael was bidding us a farewell.
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I shivered a little and pointed out the cold spot to my kids as I started to move backwards down.
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The steps.
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They shuddered and delight, feeling it too, and followed me down when we all finished our truck down the stairs, the kids spent a bit cranking the foghorn. It was loud. Once they got it going and we thought they would certainly be able to hear it in.
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The keeper's cottage.
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We were so engrossed in trying the horn that we were all surprised when we exited the lighthouse and the sunny day had disappear.
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We were shrouded in a dense and swirling sea fog. The cool, moist Gray fog had seemingly come out of nowhere, rolling in from the sea in the time it took us to descend from the Sunny lighthouse tower to the exit.
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We had briefly spied the fog at a distance when we were up there.
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But it was.
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Incredible how quickly it had blanketed the point.
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We made our way back to the keeper's cottage and made some gift shop selections. While we told the keepers about our experience as we left David and I with a beautiful painting of the ocean foregrounded by the Lupin flowers that we have so admired on our way into the lighthouse and the kids with crocheted octopi are mermaid, a starfish.
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Pillow covered in sperm whales, all of which were made by local PEI artists.
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I found myself.
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Thinking more about Michael and that fog.
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Had Michael held off the onset of the fog so that we could enjoy the view from the lighthouse and then let it roll in while the kids tested the foghorn to help us understand why a lighthouse is so important to see safety? Was it a coincidence?
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Were the cold spots a function of the lighthouses architecture, or were they supernatural in origin? Was there ever even a light housekeeper named Michael at all? Or was this just a fun story to help entertain kids while they tore the lighthouse?
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When I wrote this story, I went to the official point Prim Lighthouse website to learn more about the lighthouse and see what I could find.
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Out and in addition to the incredibly helpful resources for writing this story, I found a list of lighthouse keepers for the entire history of the point. Prim lighthouse, one name in particular stood out.
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Michael McLeod, keeper of the lighthouse for 24 years from 1873 to 1897.
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Michael was indeed real.
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And had dedicated almost a quarter century to caring for the point Prim lighthouse more than 125 years ago, when it was an incredibly grueling and lonely job.
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I leave it to you to determine whether he still remains as a friendly ghost, welcoming visitors to the lighthouse to day.
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I know what I believe based on what we experienced.
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What do you think?
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If you and your grown up want, I highly recommend the point Prim Lighthouse website to learn more. It's an excellent site and includes a 3D tour of the lighthouse so you can get a visual on the point and the lighthouse exterior as well as every level inside the lighthouse itself.
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If you want to see it, you can go to pointprimlighthouse.com and if you're ever visiting PEI near Belfast, it is a truly magical place to visit.
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Do say hello to Michael for me if you go.
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I hope you're enjoying our foggy oaks scary tales featuring music by Lee Knight, who composed and performed the music for these stories. Thank you so much, Lee and happy Spooky season to all of you.