Qualla: Pachena Point Light https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/j/pachena-point-light-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Pachena Point Light https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light Pachena Point Light: Introduction https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light/ Photo credit Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Calvin Martin had been the lightkeeper at Pachena Point since 2005. Before him, Peter Redhead served two stints spanning a dozen years. Before Redhead, Ian Crocker kept the light through most of the late 1980s and 1990s. The chain stretches back unbroken to 1907, when John S. Richardson became the first keeper of the octagonal wooden tower perched on a headland 13 kilometers south of Bamfield, watching over some of the most treacherous waters on the Pacific coast. On October 26, 2024, that chain was broken. The lightkeepers departed, and the station went dark in a way the light itself never had.

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Image: Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/j/pachena-point-light-wp/c0xj-pachena-point-light-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Pachena Point Light: A Light for the Graveyard https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light/ Photo credit Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pachena Point Lighthouse was built in the aftermath of disaster. The wreck of the SS Valencia in January 1906, which killed 136 people along this stretch of coast, galvanized the Canadian government into action. Among the improvements was a new lighthouse at Pachena Point, comple...

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Image: Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/j/pachena-point-light-wp/c0xj-pachena-point-light-a-light-for-the-graveyard.mp3 0:06 2 full Pachena Point Light: The Keepers' Succession https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light/ Photo credit Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The list of keepers reads like a genealogy of solitude. Richardson gave way to William Robinson Pillar in 1908, who gave way to Richard Clark in 1913. Some served decades -- John Alfred Hunting first arrived in 1924, returned in 1931, and did not leave until 1958. Others lasted a...

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Image: Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/j/pachena-point-light-wp/c0xj-pachena-point-light-the-keepers-succession.mp3 0:06 3 full Pachena Point Light: Seismic Concerns, Human Cost https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light/ Photo credit Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. In July 2024, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard announced that Pachena Point and nearby Carmanah Point light stations were seismically unstable. The ground beneath the keepers' feet, they determined, could not be trusted in the event of a significant earthq...

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Image: Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/j/pachena-point-light-wp/c0xj-pachena-point-light-seismic-concerns-human-cost.mp3 0:06 4 full Pachena Point Light: The Light Without a Keeper https://qualla.com/pachena-point-light/ Photo credit Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The light itself still operates -- automated systems have handled the basic function of illumination for years. But a lighthouse without a keeper is a different thing than a lighthouse with one. The keeper was the judgment, the eyes that could distinguish a vessel in distress fro...

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Image: Dave Gingrich from Pittsburgh, PA, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/x/j/pachena-point-light-wp/c0xj-pachena-point-light-the-light-without-a-keeper.mp3 0:06 5 full