#2310 "Killbear Light"

This is Killbear Light. The Killbear Lighthouse is not actually part of Killbear Provincial Park. It sits on a 3.5 acre parcel of land owned by the Coast Guard. The first light was built in 1904 to help guide the grain ships, iron ore carriers, passenger ships and logging vessels into Parry Sound and Depot Harbour. The base of the light was a large acetylene gas canister that would be filled every spring and would last the shipping season. Filling the large acetylene canister was a risky business and in the spring of 1908 the Department of Transport ship "Pilot" tied up alongside the buoy at Ten Mile Point near Cameron Island (which is just to the southwest of Killbear, about 3 km from the Park). Seven crew members were on board when an explosion sunk the ship, killed the captain and blew some crew members into the icy April waters. The survivors rowed towards Parry Sound and they spent the night at Pratt's Dance Pavilion on Mowatt Island. After another explosion at the acetylene plant in Parry Sound killed two men the fuel was switched to using smaller tanks like welders use. In 1966 the lighthouse was changed to electricity and in 1994 the original light was replaced with this present structure.

Killbear Provincial Park sits on a peninsula which has been called Killbear Point since the 1850's. Stories have been told about a logger killing a bear or vice versa on that point. Logging was not active in the area until 1860 and lasting until 1920 so that story could well be fiction. Meanwhile the local Anishinabek (Ojibway) people had called the peninsula Mukwa Nayoshing which translates into 'Bear Point' long before there were any loggers in the area. The Ojibway probably called the point Mukwa Nayoshing to recognize the natural corridor for the bears that regularly swim back and forth from the tip of the point to Parry Island where the Wasauksing First Nation is located. I have seen some of these bears while I painted. The question remains why it was called Killbear Point instead of just Bear Point. It is probably just a translation error from the Ojibway language.

Whoever painted the name on the rocks of Bear Point misspelled Killbear with only one "L". I saw a beautiful fox snake on this point when I painted there in 2017 - #1999 "Killbear Sheltered Coves" . I had no idea that Killbear Provincial Park was so close to Parry Sound and Parry Island. It was a long and twisty drive to reach Killbear Provincial Park by the roads. It was a short paddle by water from Parry Sound.

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