In January 1906, the steamship SS Valencia missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca in heavy weather and struck a reef on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. 136 people died in the wreck -- some drowning when the ship broke apart, others perishing on the rocky shore while would-be rescuers watched helplessly from the cliffs above. The Valencia disaster exposed a dangerous gap in the navigational aids along this coast. The Strait of Juan de Fuca had become a strategic shipping channel by the early twentieth century, providing access from the Pacific Ocean to the ports of Vancouver and Victoria, but the approach from the open ocean was poorly lit and lethally unforgiving in fog or storm. The Canadian government responded by increasing aids to navigation along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Sheringham Point Lighthouse, completed in 1912, was one of the direct results -- a light placed where vessels could see it as they made their critical turn into the strait.

The lighthouse's first keeper, Eustace Travanion Arden, arrived in 1912 and served for 34 years, an extraordinary tenure that spanned two world wars. Seven keepers followed him before the station was automated, each maintaining the light and the grounds in a posting that combined isolation with responsibility. From 1968 to 1989, the keepers added a scientific duty: Sheringham Point became part of the British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program, with keepers collecting daily measurements of coastal water temperature and salinity for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. For 21 years, the data flowed -- a daily ritual that contributed to one of the longest continuous oceanographic datasets on the Pacific Coast. The lighthouse grounds also hold a curious artifact: a reference marker installed by the International Boundary Commission, marking a turning point in the Canada-United States border that runs through the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

In 2003, the Canadian Coast Guard suggested deeming Sheringham Point Lighthouse and its surrounding lands as "surplus" -- bureaucratic language for disposable. Local residents of Shirley responded by establishing the Sheringham Point Lighthouse Preservation Society, a registered charity that has fought for the lighthouse's survival and public accessibility ever since. The society enlisted the help of former politician Pat Carney, known as "Canada's champion of lighthouses," who became a featured speaker at the ceremony recognizing the lighthouse's heritage designation on March 30, 2016. On May 29, 2015, Parks Canada designated Sheringham Point as a Heritage Lighthouse under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, one of 74 lighthouses across Canada to receive the designation that year. The Preservation Society and the Capital Regional District worked together to acquire the station and lands, with the goal of creating a publicly accessible park.

In 2017, Ontario resident and lighthouse enthusiast Peter Westaway, through the Westaway Charitable Foundation, donated $550,000 to the Sheringham Point Lighthouse restoration -- the largest private donation ever made to a lighthouse in Canada. The money was allocated over several years to assist with the structural work needed to preserve a building that had endured more than a century of Pacific storms, salt spray, and the relentless moisture of Vancouver Island's southwest coast. The restoration has transformed the site from a neglected government outpost into a community landmark. Named for William L. Sheringham, a naval surveyor who took part in various hydrographic expeditions -- though, ironically, not in this particular area -- the lighthouse continues to guide vessels into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The light still works. The ghost, if there is one, still means well.