Cape Norman

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Cape Norman, the bare, rocky, northernmost point of insular Newfoundland appears on French maps as Cape Dordois, in 1713, and as Cape Normand in 1744. Eventually, the name became anglicised as Cape Norman.

The Canadian government built a wooden, hexagonal lighthouse atop Cape Norman during the construction seasons of 1870 and 1871, and the lighthouse was lit for the first time on October 1, 1871. In 1890, following the wreck of the SS Montreal at Belle Isle the previous summer, a steam-operated fog alarm was built at the Cape. John Campbell, a steam engineer from Pictou, Nova Scotia, was hired as lightkeeper and fog alarm engineer, replacing Henry Locke, the former lightkeeper. Campbell arrived at the Cape in July of 1890, beginning a family tenure which lasted until 1992, when the lightstation was automated.