The unique geographical position of the Baccalieu Trail has much to do with its role in history.

• The region was a warmer hunting ground for Northern peoples thousand of years ago as they sailed south in search of game and vegetation. The Maritime Archaic Indian People and the Groswater and Dorset Eskimo People must have found a rich hunting ground in the Blaketown / Dildo / New Harbour area near the bottom of Trinity Bay.

• Later, almost 500 years ago, it was the one of the first places that Europeans found when they were sailing to the West, looking for the "north west" passage. John Cabot, who discovered Canada in 1497, was said to have visited Grates Cove at the tip of the Bay de Verde Peninsula. Soon, thousands of fishermen of many nations discovered the rich fishing grounds. The name "Baccalieu” is derived either from the Spanish bacalao or the Basque baccalos, both terms meaning “salt codfish.”  In fact, Newfoundland bears the name of Terra de Bacallaos ("land of cod") on 16th century maps. (Click here for copies of early maps.) During the16th century, they cured their fish on land in the harbours and bays of the Baccalieu Trail during the summer and returned to their European homes in the fall and winter. During the 17th century, they begin to settle. In 1610, John Guy established the Cupers Cove Colony, the first English settlement in Canada.

• Then, in the late 19th and early 20th century when people were experimenting with faster ways to communicate and to travel between Europe and North America, the Baccalieu Trail Region played a pivotal role again as the site of two major telegraph cable stations in Bay Roberts and Heart's Content, and as the site of a important landing strip in Habour Grace.

• The fact that people settled in small, isolated communities along a rugged coastline has led to the development of a unique culture. The region has one of the richest folk cultural heritage in the world. Each community has its own music, recitations, stories, verses, poems, humour, and theatre.

History

The Baccalieu Trail is an area of enormous historical importance. Because parts of this heritage were known through documents and maps from the 17th century, the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation hired chief archaeologist, William Gilbert, and his team, to excavated a five significant sites, Russell's Point (Beothuk & Recent Indian), Anderson's Cove (Maritime Archaic Indians), Dildo Island (Dorset Eskimo and Recent Indian), New Perlican (Early English Settlement), and Cupers Cove [Cupids] (John Guy Plantation.) In addition, other sites have been found including a fossil site which is approximately 550 million years old!

Pre European History

Fossil Site (from approximately 550 million years ago)

Spaniard's Bay 560-575 - million-year old marine organisms called "rangeomorphs" from the Ediacaran period. Science magazine reported that these particular fossils are unusual because they are preserved in three dimensions, unlike many that have become two dimensional over eons of time.

Maritime Archaic Indians (5000-3200 Years Ago)

Anderson's Cove, near New Harbour - Maritime Archaic Indians (3200-5000 years ago) - A site where artifacts were found from the Maritime Archaic Indians, the first known people to live in Newfoundland. Site not currently active. Artifacts are displayed at the Dildo and Area Interpretation Centre, Dildo and the Whaling & Sealing Museum. South Dildo. Tel: 582-3339

Groswater Eskimo and Dorset Eskimo People (2800 - 1300 Years Ago)

On Dildo Island, two dwellings as well as thousands of artifacts belonging to the Middle Dorset culture have been found, as well as some remnants of the the earlier Groswater Eskimo people. site inhabited by Dorset Eskimo people from the Arctic between AD 100 and AD 750 (Click here for information from baccalieudigs.ca )

Ancestors of the Beothuk and the Beothuk (1000 - 400 Years Ago)

Before the archaeological dig was conducted at Russell's Point near Blaketown, it was thought the site was just a temporary camp where the Beothuk occupied for a short time in history. However the dig revealed that the Beothuk and their ancestors had occupied the site for at least 600 years. The camp was situated to take advantage of the migratory path of caribou herds.

Artifacts from ancestors of the Beothuk were also found on Dildo Island. Although settlers who traveled to Trinity Bay with John Guy reported observing Beothuk on Dildo Island, archaeologists have not, as yet, found any artifacts from the Beothuk on the island. (Click here for information from baccalieudigs.ca and click here for information from crossroadsforcultures.ca.

(Click here for information from baccalieudigs.ca and click here for information from crossroadsforcultures.ca.

European Settlement History

John Cabot and Grates Cove - 1497

Legend dictates that John Cabot landed in Grates Cove in 1497 and carved an imprint on a rock. Although documentation for John Cabot's journeys is extremely sparse, the story of John Cabot's markings on the rock is widely told. The site is commemorated with a memorial. (Click here for an account of the tradition.)

Settlement of Cupers Cove [today know as Cupids] by John Guy - 1610

Cupers Cove [Cupids] is the site of the oldest recorded permanent English settlement in Canada and the second oldest in North America - after Jamestown, Virginia.The active archaeological site at Cupids, which was first permanently settled in 1610, was declaredone of the ten most interesting active archaeological sites in Canada by The Beaver, Canada's History Magazine in 2006. So far, remnants of buildings and more than 85, 000 artifacts have been found.

Cupids - 400th Anniversary
2010 will be the 400th Anniversary of John Guy's colony in Cupids. The region is gearing up to have the tourism infrastructure in place to welcome tourists from all over the world during the cerebration. For more information about the Cupids archaeological dig, click here. For more stories about the lives of John Guy's colonists, click here.

Historical Personages from the 17th Century

In 2005, the Eastern School District and the Baccalieu Heritage Corporation in cooperation with Heritage Canada participated in a large project which recorded the 17th century of the region.

As part of the project about 30 biographies were written about those who played a prominent role in the region in the 17th century. Click here for these biographies.

The area has direct ties to the exploration of the New England States through historical personages such as John Mason and Captain Thomas Dermer.

Modern History

Dildo Island Fish Hatchery - 1889-1897

From 1889 to 1897, a fish hatchery was established on Dildo Island. The hatchery, one of two in North America at the time, was one of the most modern and largest of its type in the world at the time. It was designed to hatch between two and three million cod in season.

20th Century History

In the 20th century, the region has played a significant role in many momentous events, particularly in communication and transportation.

Captain Bob Bartlett
Brigus is the birthplace of Captain Bob Bartlett, an outstanding pioneer navigator, who accompanied Admiral Perry on the expedition in 1909 in which Perry reached the North Pole. His home, Hawthorne Cottage, is a national historic site.

Heart's Content
The Great Eastern landed in Heart’s Content with the first successful trans-Atlantic cable.

Today the Heart's Content Cable Station is a Provincial Historic Site. It houses a visitor information center and equipment displays explaining the important role Heart's Content played in the Transatlantic Communication for over 100 years. It boasts an intriguing cable operating room in pristine condition, and houses a series of displays on the history of telecommunications, including a replica of the original Victorian cable office and details of the problems encountered during the laying of the first telegraph lines.

Bay Roberts Cable Station
The Bay Roberts Cable Office was a relay station for the cable connection from England to the United States. During World War II, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt had a private line on the link.

The Cable Station has been restored and currently houses the town council offices, the "Road to Yesterday Museum," and the Christopher Pratt Art Gallery.

Harbour Grace Airfield
The Harbour Grace Airfield was an essential site in the early history of flight. Amelia Earhart took off from the airfield in 1932 to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Stories and Legends

Like most people living on the sea, the people of the Baccalieu Trail spend many hours entertaining themselves with stories, songs, and legends. On dark evenings they relate fairy and ghost stories which have been passed from generation to generation. Residents of the area also like to perform Newfoundland music, poems, verses, jokes, recitations, and songs. Many family collections of verses, poems, and songs recounting such events as tragedies at sea, family histories, and severe storms can be found in most communities. Residents of Upper Island Cove are known for their jokes which have been developed as a result of their unique sense of humour and ready wit.

In spite of the incursion of North American culture and language, another interesting feature of the area is the number of local dialects. Residents of towns as close together as Port de Grave, Bay Roberts, Upper Island Cove, and Shearstown have distinctive ways of pronouncing many words and have expressions and idioms that are specific to each community.

The Mariner Resource Opportunities Network (M-RON) in cooperation with Canada's Digital Collections, established "A Unique Folklore Collection of the Baccalieu Trail" which gives an overview of the folklore, stories and legends.

Influence in the Arts
Home to Many

The region has been home to a number of members of Canada's arts community, past and present.

The distinguished Canadian literary figure E.J. Pratt was born in Western Bay on February 4, 1882. A few of his major awards were the Governor-General's medal, for The fable of the goats and other poems (1937); Lorne Pierce Gold Medal, for distinguished services to Canadian literature, Royal Society (1940); Governor-General's medal, for Brebeuf and his brethren (1940); Governor-General's medal, for Towards the last spike (1952); Gold Medal, for distinguished service to Canadian literature (1952); Canada Council award (1957); Civic Award of Merit, City of Toronto (1959); Canada Council medal, for distinction in literature (1961). In the community of Western Bay there is a plaque in his honour.

Christopher Pratt, one of Canada's most prominent painters and printmakers, has family ties in the region through his mother. The Christopher Pratt Art Gallery, which has a permanent collection of his works, is located in Bay Roberts.

Rockwell Kent, American artist and illustrator, author, and political activist, lived in Brigus in 1914-1915. The bleak and rugged aspects of Newfoundland seascapes appealed to him. The controversy that let to his leaving the community has been the subject of a number of local theatrical products.

Ted Russell, well known Newfoundland humourist and storyteller was born in Bay Roberts [Coley's Point]. In 1953 he began to write The Chronicles of Uncle Mose, which became an extremely popular feature on the Friday installment of The Fishermen's Broadcast on CBC Radio. The six-minute serial, which Russell also read on air in the character of Uncle Mose, ran until 1962 during which time he wrote over 600 scripts. Between 1954 and 1957 he also wrote eight plays, all but one of which had the same setting as the "Chronicles" (Pigeon Inlet) and many of the familiar characters. The best known is probably The Holdin' Ground (1955.)

Donna Butt of Rising Tide Theatre calls Spaniard's Bay her hometown. Rising Tide Theatre is one of the largest professional theatres in Newfoundland with a repertoire that includes Canadian and International dramas, Rising Tide Theatre also has a commitment to produce and develop new works by Newfoundland writers and performers.