Estevan Point lighthouse

The Spanish explorer Juan José Pérez Hernández, originating from Mallorca, traded with the natives of the region (the Nuu-chah-nulth) when he explored the area in 1774 and named the headland "Punta San Esteban". Four years later, James Cook's expedition arrived in the Nootka Sound and made contact with the local population.{{cite web|url=http://www.mvuchuck.com/early-bc-exploration.php|title=Early Exploration|publisher=Nootka Sound Service|access-date=July 24, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080727045711/http://www.mvuchuck.com/early-bc-exploration.php|archive-date=July 27, 2008}}

The lighthouse was established in 1909 as one in a series of buttressed lighthouses designed by engineer William P. Anderson. The lighthouse was constructed in concrete as a {{cvt|30.5|m}} tall octagonal tower supported by buttresses. Originally, a first order Fresnel lens made by Chance Brothers of England had been used but together with the lantern it was dismantled during the 1980s and was then donated to a regional museum in 2004.

{{Main|American theater (World War II)}}

During the Second World War, the Estevan Point lighthouse was attacked by the {{Jsub|I-26}}. On June 20, 1942, I-26, under the command of Yokota Minoru, surfaced and shelled the lighthouse,{{Citation

|url=http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-26.htm

|title=SENSUIKAN! — IJN Submarine I-26: Tabular Record of Movement

|publisher=combinedfleet.com

|access-date=December 9, 2007}} at the same time as

the {{Jsub|I-25}} made a similar attack at the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon, shelling Fort Stevens.{{Citation

|url=http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-25.htm

|title=SENSUIKAN! — IJN Submarine I-25: Tabular Record of Movement

|publisher=combinedfleet.com

|access-date=December 9, 2007}}

I-26 fired 25–30 rounds of 14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval gun at the Estevan Point lighthouse and radio-direction-finding station, but failed to hit its target and the lighthouse station remained undamaged.{{Citation

|title=Guarding the United States and its Outposts

|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/index.htm#contents

|year=2000

|orig-year=1964

|id=CMH Pub 4-2

|first1=Stetson

|last1=Conn

|last2=Engelman

|first2=Rose C.

|last3=Fairchild

|first3=Byron

|publisher=Center of Military History, United States Army

|chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/ch4.htm#b1

|chapter=The Continental Defense Commands After Pearl Harbor

|access-date=December 9, 2007

|archive-date=December 25, 2007

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225041653/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/index.htm#contents

}} Five Royal Canadian Navy patrol vessels and a Supermarine Stranraer, a flying boat of the Royal Canadian Air Force, were dispatched to search for the submarine but failed to locate I-26 which fled north and then returned to Japan. One of the 5.5-inch shells was recovered by a naval shore patrol after the attack while additional shell fragments were found in 1973. An explosive demolition team from CFB Comox destroyed one explosive fragment while an inert fragment was presented to the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. Although the attack resulted in no damage or casualties, the subsequent decision to turn off the lights of outer stations caused difficulties for coastal shipping.{{Citation

|url = http://www.pinetreeline.org/rds/detail/rds99-34.html

|title = Japanese Submarines on the West Coast of Canada

|publisher = pinetreeline.org

|access-date = December 9, 2007

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080708230923/http://www.pinetreeline.org/rds/detail/rds99-34.html

|archive-date = July 8, 2008

}}

A 1995 episode of the CBC Television newsmagazine program The Fifth Estate reported contradictions in eyewitness descriptions of the attacking vessel and speculated that the attack may have been a false flag conducted by Allied surface vessels with the intent of increasing domestic support for Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his wartime policies related to conscription.{{Citation|last=the fifth estate|title=Estevan Point Bombing : A Shot in the Dark (1995) - The Fifth Estate|date=August 18, 2017|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Ps7mJMj6g |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/r2Ps7mJMj6g |archive-date=December 21, 2021 |url-status=live|access-date=August 18, 2017}}{{cbignore}}

Estevan Point has an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb). The average annual temperature in Estevan Point is {{cvt|9.9|C}}. The average annual rainfall is {{cvt|3097.0|mm}} with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around {{cvt|14.9|C}}, and lowest in December / January, at around {{cvt|5.9|C}}. The highest temperature ever recorded in Estevan Point was {{cvt|30.5|C}} on June 28, 2021, during the Western North America heat wave; the coldest temperature ever recorded was {{cvt|-13.9|C}} on January 14, 1950.

{{Estevan Point weatherbox}}

• List of lighthouses in British Columbia
• List of lighthouses in Canada
• Henri de Miffonis

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_hl_eng.aspx?id=14515 Estevan Point lighthouse] at Parks Canada
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160820222239/http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/aids/home Aids to Navigation] Canadian Coast Guard

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Category:Lighthouses completed in 1909

Category:Lighthouses in British Columbia

Category:Military history of Canada during World War II

Category:Clayoquot Sound region

Category:Spanish history in the Pacific Northwest

Category:Vancouver Island

Category:Headlands of British Columbia

Category:Historic buildings and structures in British Columbia