In today’s interview column, a flight over the Roche aux Oiseaux lighthouse, about thirty kilometers northeast of the Magdalen Islands. It is photographed here in 2015, five years before its dismantling at the end of 2020. This photo is the first in a series of three photos on the St. Lawrence lighthouses.
“Many legends were circulating about this Bird Rock. It seems that lighthouse keepers died strangely on site, that others committed suicide there, that ghosts reigned there. It’s incredible!” says historian, author and photographer Pierre Lahoud.
“At the time, this Bird Rock was the first structure that ship pilots saw when arriving in Canada. It’s an immense rock in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, just opposite the Magdalen Islands.”
“I recently learned that this lighthouse was destroyed by [Pêches et Océans Canada]», he continues.
“It’s terrible, because it’s really part of our heritage, the history of Quebec and Canada. It’s as if we didn’t care about saving what has marked our history.”
— Pierre Lahoud
“We preserve intangible traces of our history to the extent that the legends are still alive, but the structures disappear. It’s sad!”
“Sometimes, when I see the money we spent crazy in the Blue Spaces [un projet de centres patrimoniaux et culturels lancé et abandonné par le gouvernement québécois], I tell myself that we could have spent a little $500,000 to preserve these structures, laments the historian. Certain choices of our governments are surprising and inexplicable…”
“Now Bird Rock is the domain of gannets!”
Note that some vestiges and artifacts of the Rocher aux Oiseaux were able to be rescued and preserved at the Musée de la Mer de Havre-Aubert, before the demolition of the buildings.
Comments collected by Francis Higgins
Info: pierrelahoud.com
