The salt shaker style light, which sits on a small hillock on the Cape Breton side of the canal, is the second lighthouse to be built on the site.

The first lighthouse at Balache point was built in 1905, it displayed a fixed white light from a 9.7-metre-high (32 ft) wooden tower.

[1][2][3] The current lighthouse was built in 1963, as the rear beacon of a pair of range lights, helping to guide vessels into the canal at its northern end.

[4] The front range light, built at the same time, was of a similar design, until replaced in 1991 by a more functional 6-metre-high (20 ft) skeletal tower next to the water's edge.

[5] The tapering 6.7-metre-high (22 ft) wooden tower is of the salt shaker design, painted white, with a red lantern and balcony, although pictures from 2008 show an all-white tower and lantern.