Lighthouse Park is a 185 acre natural forest located 10-miles west of Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver off Marine Drive.  Point Atkinson Lighthouse is 1/2-mile walk down Beacon Lane from the parking lot to the main Lighthouse Viewpoint (No Public Access at the Lighthouse).   Both the East and West Beach trails provide additional viewpoints of the Lighthouse.

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver charted and named the headland, Point Atkinson.

In 1875, Point Atkinson Lighthouse was established on a rocky bluff overlooking the Strait of Georgia and the outer approach to Burrard Inlet to protect the international shipping trade en route to the new port of Vancouver.   The Lighthouse exhibited a Fixed White light illuminated by two coal oil lamps and silver plated copper reflectors (a catoptric lens system).

In 1881, Lighthouse Park was created as a Lighthouse Reserve to preserve the natural landscape and the virgin forest.

In 1889, a Scotch Siren Fog Signal powered by a coal-generated steam plant was installed to further aid shipping in the fog and low visibility from the slash burning pollution of the sawmills and logging camps along the Burrard Inlet.

In 1912, the aging original Tower was replaced by 60-feet high hexagonal reinforced concrete using six buttresses to support a 1600-lb. Third-order Dióptric Fresnel Lens floating on a 400-lb. mercury bed to reduce rotational friction.   The Lens was turned by a clockwork mechanism powered by a 220-lb. weight that descended the full height of the Tower.   The Lighthouse Keeper wound the weight up every 2-½ hours.  The new Lighthouse exhibited two flashes every five seconds 108-feet above sea level illuminated by a vaporized oil lamp that burned vaporized oil into a mantel very brightly.

In 1960, the vaporized oil lamp was replaced by a electric light bulb. The Canadian Coast Guard used Point Atkinson Light to test automated lighthouse systems during the 1980s.

On September 18, 1994, Point Atkinson Lighthouse was designated a National Historic Site.

In 1996, Point Atkinson Light was refitted with an automated solar-powered light.  Donald Graham and Gerry Watson were the last Light-keepers.

(2) The Fog Signal was not listed in the Notmar Pacific Coast List of Lights, 2004.
Yet, the original Scotch Siren fog horn was replaced by a powerful diaphone horn powered by a six horsepower Fairbanks Morris engine when the present tower was built in 1912.  The Fog Signal was (is?) a 2-½ second blast every 57-½ seconds with a 10-mile range.

(3) Point Atkinson Light has been featured in three Hollywood Movies.

(4) Local Lodging:

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