Witching Hour - Legends: The lighthouse keeper's dog named Sailor
The story goes that a Newfoundland dog named Sailor won the Hackett family the Bois Blanc Island lighthouse job in 1836. Lighthouse historians say it may not be true, but Hacketts kept the light until 1924.
Topics: Witching Hour
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Witching Hour is our nightly local history and folklore feature. Ghost stories and legends are retold as stories people tell, not reported as fact. Sources are listed below the story.
Witching Hour stories are usually told in the dark. Tonight's is a small legend from a lighthouse that has watched the mouth of the Detroit River for almost 200 years.
The lighthouse
In 1836, a limestone lighthouse went up at the south tip of Bois Blanc Island, the island most people in Windsor-Essex call Boblo, off Amherstburg. Parks Canada calls it a great example of the "imperial tower" lighthouses built on the Great Lakes in that era. It stands about 12 metres tall.
James Hackett, a former Great Lakes captain, first lit it on Nov. 7, 1836. For nearly 90 years the keeper was always a Hackett: James, then his son Andrew, then Andrew's widow Agnes, then her son Charles, until the light was automated in 1924.
The legend
The story goes that Lt.-Gov. Francis Bond Head, visiting Amherstburg, admired the Hacketts' Newfoundland dog, Sailor, and asked to buy him. Mary Hackett is said to have refused to sell the family pet, but offered him if her husband was made keeper. Another version says she simply went to the governor with twin babies in her arms and asked for the job.
Lighthouse historians say neither story may be true. But the family did name a son born at the lighthouse in 1842 Francis Bond Head Hackett.
The odd part
On Jan. 8, 1838, during the rebellions in Upper Canada, rebels and their American supporters sailed the schooner Anne down the river, landed on the island and camped near the lighthouse. The keeper's family and a small British guard were forced out. The next day the Anne ran aground south of Amherstburg and the militia captured those aboard.
The light went dark for good in 1959. The tower is closed, but it can still be seen from the Amherstburg shore.
