Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island

Wood Islands is a rural farming and fishing community located in southeastern Queens County, Prince Edward Island on the Northumberland Strait. It takes its name from several small forested islands, then located several hundred metres offshore in the Northumberland Strait. The community of Wood Islands falls within the larger PEI Township of Lot 62, which had a population in 2011 of 470 residents, a 13% decrease from the 2006 census count of 540. While the named islands are located on maps by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin: Karte Bellin, 1744: ‘I a Bova’ and Louis Franquet: Cartes Franquet, 1751: ‘Isle a Bois’, it was Samuel Johannes Holland who correctly surveyed and depicted the islands, about their basin. The 'European' settlement of Wood Islands began in 1803, but saw its most noted arrivals in 1807 with the arrival, after wintering in Pinette, of a large party of Scottish settlers from The Spencer.

Wood Islands Harbour. Previously denoted as Victoria Harbour - c1868, depicted on Franquet, 1751, and as it appears on Jeffreys, 1775; their works denote a natural harbour that has long played an noted role in the island’s history. Of then three islands, they are now permanently linked by sand bars to form the Harbour. A 'winter mail run' operated between Wood Islands and Pictou, Nova Scotia, initiated in 1777, was the first 'official' island’s winter seasonal connection to the mainland, until 1827. Today, it is a sheltered harbour hosting a ferry service to Caribou, Nova Scotia, operated by Northumberland Ferries Limited, as well as small craft fishing vessels. The southwestern shore of the lagoon forming Wood Islands Harbour is also the southernmost point in Prince Edward Island with coordinates 45º65'54"N, 62º45'18"W. Wood Islands Harbour in Prince Edward Island is at latitude 45.953 and longitude -62.7478. It is designated a ‘Core Fishing Harbour’ – noted as critical to fishing and aquaculture industries, and it is now being managed by Harbour Authority of Wood Islands.

Wood Islands Lighthouse. During its session of 1874, the Canadian Parliament appropriated $6,000 for a lighthouse at Wood Islands, as an aid of marine traffic in the Strait and for fishers in and around Wood Islands harbour. A contract for $3,000 was entered into with Archibald McKay of Moncton, NB, who abandoned the project after having received $900 for his work. The Department of Marine hired Donald MacMillian to complete the work; the then eight-room structure was finished during the autumn of 1876 and put into operation on 1 November 1876. Allen, 1880 and Cummins, 1927 show the light on the south bank of an island, in the Wood Islands basin, adjacent to the then harbour entrance breakwaters. The southeast island came to be attached to shore with changes in the harbour usage, and with the construction of the Wood Islands ferry terminal and berthing docks. It is the second oldest lighthouse, with an attached dwelling and tower of this style, on the island. The difficult approach meant that the keepers had few visitors before the present road was built in the late 1930s. The Wood Islands Lighthouse is now a museum operated by a local community group and can be toured daily from mid-July to mid-September.

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