Huge Interest in Lighthouses by Vaughn Mullen

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"Huge Interest in Lighthouses"

by Vaughn Mullen, Managing Editor

May 31st, 2000 White Point, N.S. - There is a huge interest around the world in lighthouses and lighthouse preservation. This fact, common knowledge among lighthouse enthusiasts, was reinforced by the founder of the Lighthouse Society of Great Britain, Dr. Ken Trethewey.

The newly restored Fort Point Lighthouse, Liverpool, Queens County. The lighthouse is a popular travel destination in the region.

Dr. Trethewey, a well-known lighthouse archivist and researcher was one of several keynote speakers addressing delegates of the first International Lighthouse Conference in Canada at White Point Beach Resort, Queens County.

"The huge interest in lighthouses at the moment," Dr. Trethewey explained, is due to several factors, among them the increase in personal leisure time, easy transport, broader education, the power and presence of the media, the growing awareness of the importance of lighthouses and most of all, "greater access to information."

He suggested that while there are "pluses and minuses" in obtaining information from the internet, in the future it is the internet and computer technology that "will drive the effort."

Dr. Trethewey, through the Lighthouse Society of Great Britain, has been instrumental in the publication of several multi-media compact disks (CDs) on lighthouses and lighthouse keepers, including The Lighthouse Encyclopedia, which catalogues the location of 3000 lighthouses around the world, and The Lighthouse Keepers Database, a unique collection of lighthouse keeper archival information.

A professional engineer, Dr. Trethewey, is from Kent, England. He has had a lifetime fascination with lighthouses and can trace his family roots through five consecutive generations of lighthouse keepers in Great Britain, spanning 180 years from 1730 to 1910.

An important social component of the International Lighthouse Conference is the convention trade show. Among the lighthouse conservation associations, individuals and companies participating in the show is the Atlantica Trading Company of Fall River, Nova Scotia. The retail mail-order firm used the conference to launch its new series of Atlantic Canada Lighthouse Collectibles. The set of six lighthouse miniatures are hand-numbered and signed by lighthouse historian, Rip Irwin.