Storyline Nov 17,2005
This is a working document guiding the development of new exhibits for the Gateway to Labrador Visitor Centre, in L'Anse Au Clair.
World Events: The Last Ice Age Ends 12,000 BP
PEOPLE OF LABRADOR: A 9000 year old legacy
First Inhabitants
The earliest humans to live in Newfoundland and Labrador arrived in Southern Labrador about 9,000 years ago, attracted to the Strait of Belle Isle by rich marine resources.About 5,000 years ago these Maritime Archaic people began moving north along the Labrador coast and south into Newfoundland.The Maritime Archaic are distinguished by their beautifully made ground and polished slate tools, distinctive bone implements and ceremonial burials.
Highlighted Site:
L’Anse Amour Burial Mound National Historic Site of Canada
Ponder the mystery of the ceremonial burial of a child who died more than 7,000 years ago, almost 2,000 years before the Great Pyramids of Egypt were built.This unique site is one of the oldest burial mounds in North America and reveals a great deal about early human history of this area.
Display: Reproduction artefacts representative of the prehistoric peoples of the region. Tim Rast, Elfshot
Image: Photo of burial mound. Jim Tuck’s photos of artefacts or reproductions of artefacts? (perhaps toggle and flute)
The raw material and style of stone tools associated with a group of people who lived along the Labrador coast about 3,500 years ago suggest that they were descendants of the earlier Maritime Archaic people.As this group evolved they developed a more generalized economy using resources from both the land and the sea.The Innu continued to use the same hunting grounds and live in the same manner as these ancestors until the middle of the 20th century.
Images: Historical Photo of Labrador Innu family group, Map showing present day Innu communities. Possibly reproduction Innu arrow.
Great Pyramid in Egypt, Finished 4525 BP
Paleo-Eskimo People
The first wave of arctic peoples arrived in Northern Labrador about 4,000 years ago.These paleo-eskimos, who evolved into cultures that we know as Groswater and Dorset, moved south along the Labrador coast and into Newfoundland in pursuit of marine resources, such as the large harp seal herds.The Dorset survived in areas of Northern Labrador until about 600 years ago.Their disappearance closely coincides with the arrival of a second wave of arctic peoples known as the Thule, who are the ancestors of today's Labrador Inuit.The Inuit travelled as far south as the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland to trade with Europeans during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Display: Reproduction artefacts representative of the prehistoric peoples of the region, including Thule harpoon.
Graphic: Historic Photo of Labrador Inuit family group, Map showing present day Inuit communities.Adlavik drawings?
Caption for Historic Photo: During the late 18th century the Moravians set up missions in Northern Labrador to trade with the Inuit and providing European religious, educational, and medical services.
Vikings in Markland
The first Europeans to see Labrador were the Vikings who sailed here in search of timber around the year 1000. They referred to Labrador as Markland meaning “land of timber”. Records document the Vikings bringing timber from Labrador to Iceland as late as the 13th century. In their sailings along the Labrador the Vikings also noted, and included in their sagas, reference to a vast expanse of beaches they called Wonderstrands, which is most likely the Porcupine Strand near Cartwright.
Graphics: Wonderstand photo with bear footprint by Robin Holwell
Map indicating Greenland, Markland and L’Anse aux Meadows.
Quote as caption for photo of the Porcupine Strand, or superimposed on photo:
“It was open and harbourless, with long beaches and extensive sands....They called this stretch of coast Furdustrands (Wonderstrands) because it took so long to sail past it. Then the coastline became indented with bays and they steered into one of them."
From Eirik's Saga (Penguin edition, 1965).
Columbus Sails to the New World, 1492
Origin of the Name Labrador
The name “Labrador” comes from the Portuguese word lavrador, meaning “landowner”. Joao Fernandes, a landowner from the Azores, named the land he sighted in 1501, “Tiera del Lavrador.” Mapmakers thought the land was Labrador, but it was Greenland. A hundred years later the mistake was realized, and the name was permanently attached to Labrador.
Graphic: Early map showing Breton Place names – perhaps have text in top left of map, caption at bottom of map.Juan de la Cosa Map?
Caption: Some of the earliest European fishermen in Labrador were Breton and Portuguese. Many of the mapped place names on the Labrador coast are related to Brittany.
French Fishery in Labrador
French exploration began with the arrival of the first recorded French fishing voyage to Newfoundland in 1508. From then until the late 1600’s the region was a seasonal base for whalers and cod fishermen. The Labrador coast was an extension of New France and the King granted concessions to merchants or military officers which gave them rights to the resources of the region. By the early 1700s French merchants were involved in the seal fishery and fur trade. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the French presence in Labrador.
Graphics: Historic map
Image: photo of the stones and wilde cragges around L’Anse au Clair
Quote: Jacques Cartier 1534
“…it is not to be called the new Land, but rather stones and wilde cragges, and a place fit for wilde beastes….I did not see a Cart-load of good earth: yet went I on shoare in many places….There is nothing else but mosse and small thornes scattered here and there, withered and dry. To be short, I believe that this was the land God allotted to Caine.”
From the First Relation of Jaques Carthier of S. Malo 1534
The Basques
By the 1540’s for about 80 years, whalers from the Basque region of Spain and France were hunting whales and processing oil at numerous ports in southern Labrador. Red Bay, known Les Buttes during the 16th century, was one of the largest and busiest ports, being home to as many as 1000 men each year for at least half a century.
Highlighted Site: Red Bay National Historic Site of Canada
In late medieval Europe, whale oil was a rare and highly valued commodity. As lamp fuel, it burned brighter than the more common vegetable oils, and it was used in the manufacture of soap, paint, perfume and other products. Cod fishermen from the Basque region of Spain and France discovered large numbers of right and bowhead whales in the Strait of Belle Isle early in the 16th century.By the 1540s, Basque merchants and ship owners had established numerous stations along the south coast of Labrador for the production of whale oil.Red Bay, known Les Buttes during the 16th century, was one of the largest and busiest ports.Each summer for about 60 years, Red Bay was home to as many as 1,000 Basque whalers who came to hunt the whales and refine their oil for the European marketplace.
Right Whale exhibit caption
Learn more about the whales hunted by the 16th century Basques and the modern efforts being made to protect the species at the Red Bay Right Whale Exhibit, Selma Barkham Town Centre.
Graphic:Photo of chalupa at Red Bay visitor centre. Photo of Right Whale exhibit. Period map.
Display: Reproduction pottery and tiles. Barrel
Quote: Caption for the Map, or text superimposed on map:
"...You will find at Boytus (Les Buttes, or Red Bay) a covered Shoal which is very bad and dangerous and lies Northwest and Southeast, quarter East-West of the large island of Boytus, and to the seaward side the Isle of Flowers, within a bombard shot length; you can pass very well to the landward side if you follow along the land westwards from Chasteau."
16th century Basque sailing directions for Red Bay, from Les voyages avantureux du Capitaine Martin de Hoyarsabal (Boudreaux, 1579), translated by Dr. Selma Barkham
Metis
The present day Labrador Metis are descendents of European settlers and aboriginal women. These settlers were mainly British and French, who began settling in Labrador In the 1700’s. They came as fur traders and fishermen, carpenters and tinsmiths. Many of these men married Inuit women and blended their ways with those of the Inuit. Winters were spent in sheltered bays where there was timber for firewood and construction as well as easy access to the interior for trapping and hunting. Summer places, in carefully chosen harbours or on islands provided easy access to the sea for cod and salmon and seal fisheries. Today Metis traditions still resonate with the ways of their elders.
Graphics: Historic and present day photos, and komatik panel.
Phone Bert Pomeroy at LMN for Photos.
Quote: Captain George Cartwright’s Labrador Journal:
Graphics:I’d like to see this on a large panel with an historic photo of an Inuit komatik and a present day komatik behind a snowmobile – showing how the traditional style sled is still in use.
Display: Komatik
“Wednesday December 19, 1770.
As the construction of an Esquimaux sled (komatik) differs so widely, and is, I think, so much superior to all others which have yet to come to my knowledge…. It is made of two spruce planks, each twenty-one feet long, fourteen inches broad, and two inches thick, which are hewn out of separate trees…. The fore ends are sloped off from the bottom upwards, that they may rise over any inequalities upon the road. Boards of eighteen inches long are set across the upper edges of the sled, three inches asunder, to place the goods upon; and to accommodate the driver and others with a seat. The under edges are shod, with the jaw bone of a whale, cut into lengths of two or three feet, half an inch thick; and are fastened on with pegs of the same This shoeing is durable, and makes them slide very glibly....The motion of the sled is very easy, and half a dozen people may travel forty miles a day, without difficulty, if they have fourteen or fifteen dogs yoked.
Settlers
With the Treaty of Paris in 1763 most of New France, including Labrador, became part of British North America.The British attempt to restrict settlement on the Labrador coast by establishing a migratory fishery to restrict competition for resources did not work, and by the early 19th century West Country English and Channel Island merchants had set up enterprises: the Channel Islanders were interested in the summer cod fishery while the West Countrymen had more diversified interests such as seals and salmon.These enterprises brought men to Labrador who eventually settled here.They were soon joined by Newfoundlanders and created the basis for the present day population of the area.
What was the Treaty of Paris?
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Seven Years War between England and France. The war was fought in Europe, but one of the results was that New France, and Labrador, became British territories.
Graphics: 19th C photos of settlers. Rev. Gray’s drawings
Quote: Bishop Feild
“There were several icebergs about, which makes a good look-out very necessary. Dieu nous en garde….After a few minutes, however…Mr. Slade’s establishment was plainly seen, and without a doubt this was Battle Harbour….There was a splendid ice-church just in the place where I noted an iceberg of similar appearance last year. There rose up in the centre a tower with a lofty spire; aisles and a chancel were built up with some irregularity, but hardly more than would be allowed and admired in a spacious Gothic church. This mighty and fair structure was floating to the southward, and we tacked very near it.”
Bishop Feild’s Visitation, August 17th and 18th 1849
French Revolution 1789
Labrador Fishery
During the early 1800s a growing international demand for dried cod and an expanding population on Newfoundland's east coast forced fishermen northwards in search of new fishing grounds. By the 1830s thousands of Newfoundland fishermen were sailing to the Labrador coast in pursuit of cod each summer. Although some of them eventually settled here, the seasonal "Labrador Fishery" continued until the mid-1900s. Almost half of the Newfoundlanders who came to the Labrador coast during the early 1800s were women. Many were young unmarried girls who came with their families or as "serving girls" for fishing crews. These young women finally made permanent settlement possible
Two photos: one of family, one of fleet of schooners. Photo caption:
Livyers and their families settled permanently in Labrador.
Stationers brought their families to Labrador each summer and set up shore stations or "rooms" and returned to Newfoundland in the fall.
Floaters lived on schooners that fished along the Labrador coast and also returned to Newfoundland in the fall.
Highlighted site: Battle Harbour National Historic District of Canada
The mercantile saltfish premises of Battle Harbour was established by a British firm, John Slade and Company in the mid 1700s. Due to its location, Battle Harbour became the major base for the region’s cod and seal fisheries, and for commercial trade. For two centuries Battle Harbour was unofficially the capital of Labrador and played host to medical pioneer Sir Wilfred Grenfell and arctic explorer Commander Robert Peary. Today, refurbished mercantile premises, guided tours and artefacts tell the story of Battle Harbour.
Historic and modern photos of Battle Hr.
Display:Using half of the fish box, mounted to the wall, possibly with an image of someone splitting fish behind it, similar to the cutouts at Battle Harbour, but flat against the wall. Fake fish?
Navigation
Southern Labrador and the Strait of Belle Isle played an important role in
European expansion to North America.The Vikings travelled along the coast from Greenland and early European fishermen, whalers and explorers came here for the rich marine resources.Navigation in those days was more an art than a science; longitude was an 18th century innovation and early navigators relied on the wind, the sun and the stars to keep them on the right course.
By the mid 19th century navigation had improved considerably and steamships had become the preferred method of travel.The Strait of Belle Isle was the fastest route between Canada and Europe.Fog, ice and strong currents make it a dangerous passage and many ships have met their fate in the narrow waters near Point Amour.
Highlighted Site: Point Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historic Site.
The Point Amour Lighthouse in the Labrador Straits region is one of the best surviving examples of the "Imperial Tower". The Imperial Towers, built in the 1850s and 1860s around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, helped usher in the Age of Steam and the golden age of trans-Atlantic navigation. But even Point Amour, the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada, could not prevent the dramatic wrecks of HMS Lilly in 1887, and HMS Raleigh in 1922, proud British naval vessels whose remains still litter the shore just steps away, and whose furnishing and fittings decorate many a parlour in the homes of southern Labrador residents who rescued the crews. Nor could they ward off the marauding German U-boats which prowled Canada's Atlantic coast during the Second World War. The rich maritime past of the Strait of Belle Isle comes alive at Point Amour Lighthouse.
Graphics: Navigation lanes, Lighthouse/ Shipwrecks, Fresnell Lens
Boats?
Quote: D. W. Prowse
“The old sailors of that age trusted entirely to a good look-out; their latitude was generally several degrees wrong, their longitude equally vague; they relied on their keen observation – the compass, the run of the ship, and the sign of birds. On Cartier’s celebrated voyages it was the vast numbers of great auk and penguins off our coasts that led him into the land.“
D. W. Prowse, A History of Newfoundland, 1895
A PIECE OF HISTORY (Big Land Sale)(PRIVATE)
The recent discovery of vast deposits of minerals on Labrador's north coast and now gemstones found in Southeastern Labrador, gives one the feeling that Labrador might indeed be, "A huge storehouse of natural resources".We have known for many years of the rich iron ore deposits in western Labrador and the massive electrical potential of the Churchill River. It seems all corners of the "Big Land" are rich in natural resources. People and companies from all over the world are converging on Labrador for "a piece of the action".But it wasn't always like that. For most of Labrador's history - indeed from the moment Jacques Cartier dubbed it, "The land God allotted Cain" in 1534 - jurisdiction over the territory had been somewhat tentative.No government seemed very interested in the administration of Labrador.It was treated largely as a worthless piece of real estate. In actual fact the government of Newfoundland made several attempts during the first half of the 20th century to sell Labrador for cash. Labrador’s true economic value is just now becoming known. I expect the `For Sale' sign will not be going up again anytime soon.
Lawrence Normore, June 1998
World War II: 1939-1935
Confederation With Canada 1949
“…There was a lot of poor people around before we joined Canada, I tell you. They had to be poor, there was nothing for ‘em to depend on only codfish… But after she went under Confederation, ‘twas far better that it was before.
Wilfred Davis, English Point, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning.
(Brief statement about confederation and changes it brought. Effects on customs. Truck system. No cash prior to confederation. No vote in Labrador prior to confederation.)
World Events: The Last Ice Age Ends 12,000 BP
PEOPLE OF LABRADOR: A 9000 year old legacy
First Inhabitants
The earliest humans to live in Newfoundland and Labrador arrived in Southern Labrador about 9,000 years ago, attracted to the Strait of Belle Isle by rich marine resources.About 5,000 years ago these Maritime Archaic people began moving north along the Labrador coast and south into Newfoundland.The Maritime Archaic are distinguished by their beautifully made ground and polished slate tools, distinctive bone implements and ceremonial burials.
Highlighted Site:
L’Anse Amour Burial Mound National Historic Site of Canada
Ponder the mystery of the ceremonial burial of a child who died more than 7,000 years ago, almost 2,000 years before the Great Pyramids of Egypt were built.This unique site is one of the oldest burial mounds in North America and reveals a great deal about early human history of this area.
Display: Reproduction artefacts representative of the prehistoric peoples of the region. Tim Rast, Elfshot
Image: Photo of burial mound. Jim Tuck’s photos of artefacts or reproductions of artefacts? (perhaps toggle and flute)
The raw material and style of stone tools associated with a group of people who lived along the Labrador coast about 3,500 years ago suggest that they were descendants of the earlier Maritime Archaic people.As this group evolved they developed a more generalized economy using resources from both the land and the sea.The Innu continued to use the same hunting grounds and live in the same manner as these ancestors until the middle of the 20th century.
Images: Historical Photo of Labrador Innu family group, Map showing present day Innu communities. Possibly reproduction Innu arrow.
Great Pyramid in Egypt, Finished 4525 BP
Paleo-Eskimo People
The first wave of arctic peoples arrived in Northern Labrador about 4,000 years ago.These paleo-eskimos, who evolved into cultures that we know as Groswater and Dorset, moved south along the Labrador coast and into Newfoundland in pursuit of marine resources, such as the large harp seal herds.The Dorset survived in areas of Northern Labrador until about 600 years ago.Their disappearance closely coincides with the arrival of a second wave of arctic peoples known as the Thule, who are the ancestors of today's Labrador Inuit.The Inuit travelled as far south as the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland to trade with Europeans during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Display: Reproduction artefacts representative of the prehistoric peoples of the region, including Thule harpoon.
Graphic: Historic Photo of Labrador Inuit family group, Map showing present day Inuit communities.Adlavik drawings?
Caption for Historic Photo: During the late 18th century the Moravians set up missions in Northern Labrador to trade with the Inuit and providing European religious, educational, and medical services.
Vikings in Markland
The first Europeans to see Labrador were the Vikings who sailed here in search of timber around the year 1000. They referred to Labrador as Markland meaning “land of timber”. Records document the Vikings bringing timber from Labrador to Iceland as late as the 13th century. In their sailings along the Labrador the Vikings also noted, and included in their sagas, reference to a vast expanse of beaches they called Wonderstrands, which is most likely the Porcupine Strand near Cartwright.
Graphics: Wonderstand photo with bear footprint by Robin Holwell
Map indicating Greenland, Markland and L’Anse aux Meadows.
Quote as caption for photo of the Porcupine Strand, or superimposed on photo:
“It was open and harbourless, with long beaches and extensive sands....They called this stretch of coast Furdustrands (Wonderstrands) because it took so long to sail past it. Then the coastline became indented with bays and they steered into one of them."
From Eirik's Saga (Penguin edition, 1965).
Columbus Sails to the New World, 1492
Origin of the Name Labrador
The name “Labrador” comes from the Portuguese word lavrador, meaning “landowner”. Joao Fernandes, a landowner from the Azores, named the land he sighted in 1501, “Tiera del Lavrador.” Mapmakers thought the land was Labrador, but it was Greenland. A hundred years later the mistake was realized, and the name was permanently attached to Labrador.
Graphic: Early map showing Breton Place names – perhaps have text in top left of map, caption at bottom of map.Juan de la Cosa Map?
Caption: Some of the earliest European fishermen in Labrador were Breton and Portuguese. Many of the mapped place names on the Labrador coast are related to Brittany.
French Fishery in Labrador
French exploration began with the arrival of the first recorded French fishing voyage to Newfoundland in 1508. From then until the late 1600’s the region was a seasonal base for whalers and cod fishermen. The Labrador coast was an extension of New France and the King granted concessions to merchants or military officers which gave them rights to the resources of the region. By the early 1700s French merchants were involved in the seal fishery and fur trade. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the French presence in Labrador.
Graphics: Historic map
Image: photo of the stones and wilde cragges around L’Anse au Clair
Quote: Jacques Cartier 1534
“…it is not to be called the new Land, but rather stones and wilde cragges, and a place fit for wilde beastes….I did not see a Cart-load of good earth: yet went I on shoare in many places….There is nothing else but mosse and small thornes scattered here and there, withered and dry. To be short, I believe that this was the land God allotted to Caine.”
From the First Relation of Jaques Carthier of S. Malo 1534
The Basques
By the 1540’s for about 80 years, whalers from the Basque region of Spain and France were hunting whales and processing oil at numerous ports in southern Labrador. Red Bay, known Les Buttes during the 16th century, was one of the largest and busiest ports, being home to as many as 1000 men each year for at least half a century.
Highlighted Site: Red Bay National Historic Site of Canada
In late medieval Europe, whale oil was a rare and highly valued commodity. As lamp fuel, it burned brighter than the more common vegetable oils, and it was used in the manufacture of soap, paint, perfume and other products. Cod fishermen from the Basque region of Spain and France discovered large numbers of right and bowhead whales in the Strait of Belle Isle early in the 16th century.By the 1540s, Basque merchants and ship owners had established numerous stations along the south coast of Labrador for the production of whale oil.Red Bay, known Les Buttes during the 16th century, was one of the largest and busiest ports.Each summer for about 60 years, Red Bay was home to as many as 1,000 Basque whalers who came to hunt the whales and refine their oil for the European marketplace.
Right Whale exhibit caption
Learn more about the whales hunted by the 16th century Basques and the modern efforts being made to protect the species at the Red Bay Right Whale Exhibit, Selma Barkham Town Centre.
Graphic:Photo of chalupa at Red Bay visitor centre. Photo of Right Whale exhibit. Period map.
Display: Reproduction pottery and tiles. Barrel
Quote: Caption for the Map, or text superimposed on map:
"...You will find at Boytus (Les Buttes, or Red Bay) a covered Shoal which is very bad and dangerous and lies Northwest and Southeast, quarter East-West of the large island of Boytus, and to the seaward side the Isle of Flowers, within a bombard shot length; you can pass very well to the landward side if you follow along the land westwards from Chasteau."
16th century Basque sailing directions for Red Bay, from Les voyages avantureux du Capitaine Martin de Hoyarsabal (Boudreaux, 1579), translated by Dr. Selma Barkham
Metis
The present day Labrador Metis are descendents of European settlers and aboriginal women. These settlers were mainly British and French, who began settling in Labrador In the 1700’s. They came as fur traders and fishermen, carpenters and tinsmiths. Many of these men married Inuit women and blended their ways with those of the Inuit. Winters were spent in sheltered bays where there was timber for firewood and construction as well as easy access to the interior for trapping and hunting. Summer places, in carefully chosen harbours or on islands provided easy access to the sea for cod and salmon and seal fisheries. Today Metis traditions still resonate with the ways of their elders.
Graphics: Historic and present day photos, and komatik panel.
Phone Bert Pomeroy at LMN for Photos.
Quote: Captain George Cartwright’s Labrador Journal:
Graphics:I’d like to see this on a large panel with an historic photo of an Inuit komatik and a present day komatik behind a snowmobile – showing how the traditional style sled is still in use.
Display: Komatik
“Wednesday December 19, 1770.
As the construction of an Esquimaux sled (komatik) differs so widely, and is, I think, so much superior to all others which have yet to come to my knowledge…. It is made of two spruce planks, each twenty-one feet long, fourteen inches broad, and two inches thick, which are hewn out of separate trees…. The fore ends are sloped off from the bottom upwards, that they may rise over any inequalities upon the road. Boards of eighteen inches long are set across the upper edges of the sled, three inches asunder, to place the goods upon; and to accommodate the driver and others with a seat. The under edges are shod, with the jaw bone of a whale, cut into lengths of two or three feet, half an inch thick; and are fastened on with pegs of the same This shoeing is durable, and makes them slide very glibly....The motion of the sled is very easy, and half a dozen people may travel forty miles a day, without difficulty, if they have fourteen or fifteen dogs yoked.
Settlers
With the Treaty of Paris in 1763 most of New France, including Labrador, became part of British North America.The British attempt to restrict settlement on the Labrador coast by establishing a migratory fishery to restrict competition for resources did not work, and by the early 19th century West Country English and Channel Island merchants had set up enterprises: the Channel Islanders were interested in the summer cod fishery while the West Countrymen had more diversified interests such as seals and salmon.These enterprises brought men to Labrador who eventually settled here.They were soon joined by Newfoundlanders and created the basis for the present day population of the area.
What was the Treaty of Paris?
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Seven Years War between England and France. The war was fought in Europe, but one of the results was that New France, and Labrador, became British territories.
Graphics: 19th C photos of settlers. Rev. Gray’s drawings
Quote: Bishop Feild
“There were several icebergs about, which makes a good look-out very necessary. Dieu nous en garde….After a few minutes, however…Mr. Slade’s establishment was plainly seen, and without a doubt this was Battle Harbour….There was a splendid ice-church just in the place where I noted an iceberg of similar appearance last year. There rose up in the centre a tower with a lofty spire; aisles and a chancel were built up with some irregularity, but hardly more than would be allowed and admired in a spacious Gothic church. This mighty and fair structure was floating to the southward, and we tacked very near it.”
Bishop Feild’s Visitation, August 17th and 18th 1849
French Revolution 1789
Labrador Fishery
During the early 1800s a growing international demand for dried cod and an expanding population on Newfoundland's east coast forced fishermen northwards in search of new fishing grounds. By the 1830s thousands of Newfoundland fishermen were sailing to the Labrador coast in pursuit of cod each summer. Although some of them eventually settled here, the seasonal "Labrador Fishery" continued until the mid-1900s. Almost half of the Newfoundlanders who came to the Labrador coast during the early 1800s were women. Many were young unmarried girls who came with their families or as "serving girls" for fishing crews. These young women finally made permanent settlement possible
Two photos: one of family, one of fleet of schooners. Photo caption:
Livyers and their families settled permanently in Labrador.
Stationers brought their families to Labrador each summer and set up shore stations or "rooms" and returned to Newfoundland in the fall.
Floaters lived on schooners that fished along the Labrador coast and also returned to Newfoundland in the fall.
Highlighted site: Battle Harbour National Historic District of Canada
The mercantile saltfish premises of Battle Harbour was established by a British firm, John Slade and Company in the mid 1700s. Due to its location, Battle Harbour became the major base for the region’s cod and seal fisheries, and for commercial trade. For two centuries Battle Harbour was unofficially the capital of Labrador and played host to medical pioneer Sir Wilfred Grenfell and arctic explorer Commander Robert Peary. Today, refurbished mercantile premises, guided tours and artefacts tell the story of Battle Harbour.
Historic and modern photos of Battle Hr.
Display:Using half of the fish box, mounted to the wall, possibly with an image of someone splitting fish behind it, similar to the cutouts at Battle Harbour, but flat against the wall. Fake fish?
Navigation
Southern Labrador and the Strait of Belle Isle played an important role in
European expansion to North America.The Vikings travelled along the coast from Greenland and early European fishermen, whalers and explorers came here for the rich marine resources.Navigation in those days was more an art than a science; longitude was an 18th century innovation and early navigators relied on the wind, the sun and the stars to keep them on the right course.
By the mid 19th century navigation had improved considerably and steamships had become the preferred method of travel.The Strait of Belle Isle was the fastest route between Canada and Europe.Fog, ice and strong currents make it a dangerous passage and many ships have met their fate in the narrow waters near Point Amour.
Highlighted Site: Point Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historic Site.
The Point Amour Lighthouse in the Labrador Straits region is one of the best surviving examples of the "Imperial Tower". The Imperial Towers, built in the 1850s and 1860s around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, helped usher in the Age of Steam and the golden age of trans-Atlantic navigation. But even Point Amour, the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada, could not prevent the dramatic wrecks of HMS Lilly in 1887, and HMS Raleigh in 1922, proud British naval vessels whose remains still litter the shore just steps away, and whose furnishing and fittings decorate many a parlour in the homes of southern Labrador residents who rescued the crews. Nor could they ward off the marauding German U-boats which prowled Canada's Atlantic coast during the Second World War. The rich maritime past of the Strait of Belle Isle comes alive at Point Amour Lighthouse.
Graphics: Navigation lanes, Lighthouse/ Shipwrecks, Fresnell Lens
Boats?
Quote: D. W. Prowse
“The old sailors of that age trusted entirely to a good look-out; their latitude was generally several degrees wrong, their longitude equally vague; they relied on their keen observation – the compass, the run of the ship, and the sign of birds. On Cartier’s celebrated voyages it was the vast numbers of great auk and penguins off our coasts that led him into the land.“
D. W. Prowse, A History of Newfoundland, 1895
A PIECE OF HISTORY (Big Land Sale)(PRIVATE)
The recent discovery of vast deposits of minerals on Labrador's north coast and now gemstones found in Southeastern Labrador, gives one the feeling that Labrador might indeed be, "A huge storehouse of natural resources".We have known for many years of the rich iron ore deposits in western Labrador and the massive electrical potential of the Churchill River. It seems all corners of the "Big Land" are rich in natural resources. People and companies from all over the world are converging on Labrador for "a piece of the action".But it wasn't always like that. For most of Labrador's history - indeed from the moment Jacques Cartier dubbed it, "The land God allotted Cain" in 1534 - jurisdiction over the territory had been somewhat tentative.No government seemed very interested in the administration of Labrador.It was treated largely as a worthless piece of real estate. In actual fact the government of Newfoundland made several attempts during the first half of the 20th century to sell Labrador for cash. Labrador’s true economic value is just now becoming known. I expect the `For Sale' sign will not be going up again anytime soon.
Lawrence Normore, June 1998
World War II: 1939-1935
Confederation With Canada 1949
“…There was a lot of poor people around before we joined Canada, I tell you. They had to be poor, there was nothing for ‘em to depend on only codfish… But after she went under Confederation, ‘twas far better that it was before.
Wilfred Davis, English Point, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning.
(Brief statement about confederation and changes it brought. Effects on customs. Truck system. No cash prior to confederation. No vote in Labrador prior to confederation.)
ATTRACTIONS
Natural Environment
Quote: Jean-Jacques Audubon, Journal, June 17, 1833
“We breakfasted on the best of fresh codfish, and I never relished a breakfast more, I looked on our landing on the coast of Labrador as a matter of great importance. My thoughts were filled, not with airy castles, but with expectations of the new knowledge of birds and quadrupeds which I hoped to acquire.”
Graphics: Art Piece – 3 silk banners hanging depicting plants, marine mammals, birds, recognizable Labrador Landscape.Diana Dabinett, artist.
Display: Beach barrels. Computer with slide show of local natural attractions and where to find them. Computer will be housed in half of the old fish box, with only the flat screen showing for visitors to see slide show
Outdoor Attractions
Display: Located at the centre back on the false wall. Backdrop will be a reproduction of a painting with northern lights by Annette Campbell. A photographic display of outdoor activities will be floating in front of the painting, far enough to allow the viewer to see the painting behind.
Quote: Hunting and Trapping
We got caught out but never got lost, we found our way just the same. Spent one night in a snowhole. And it wasn’t all that bad. Just dug down a little place, it wasn’t very big because the woods wasn’t high. It was high enough to sit down in, that’s all. We had some sticks put across the hole, and we put the komatik over the hole and spread quilts on top of the komatic and had snow on ‘em. Nothing couldn’t come down through then, see.
Howard Saulter, Forteau, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
LIFESTYLE
Outdoor Lifestyle
Forestry
In Southeastern Labrador the forest industry, rather than the fishery, was the basis for settlement for some communities.Port Hope Simpson was founded in 1934 as a logging camp. After a sawmill and townsite were built on the Alexis River, it was named Port Hope Simpson in honour of the Commissioner of Natural Resources. The logging station hired several hundred loggers from nearby communities and unemployed men were brought in from Newfoundland. Since the decline of the cod fishery in recent years, forestry has offered new economic opportunities in the region.
Quote: Local community history collection? Maybe something about cutting firewood as well.
Graphics: Woodpile photos - historic photo of forest industry.
Fishery
For over 500 years this region had some of the richest fishing grounds on the east coast of North America.By 1992 the cod stocks had declined significantly due to overfishing and a moratorium closed the fishery. Local people feel that the closure of the cod fishery has taken way the birthright of the people of the Labrador coast.The future of the cod fishery remains uncertain.
Quote from fisherman about the Moratorium: ???
Quote: Fish, Fat and Potatoes
…So one day we had three or four quintals a fish. We brought it in and were clearin’ it away. And while we were clearin’ it away, I was cuttin’ the fish, I seen these round lumps in the fish’s puddock (stomach). And I got peculiar about it. I knowed it wasn’t rocks, wasn’t heavy enough. It was a fair sized fish, I s’pose he was twenty-five or thirty pounds. So I cut the puddock open, And I s’pose there was a quart of cooked potatoes in his puddock. There was ships goin’ along, I s’pose, passenger boats, always used to dump what was left from dinner overboard, and there was plenty of fish in the water everywhere then. And accordin’ as the potatoes was sinkin’ down, the fish was eatin’ em… ‘Cause a fish’d eat anything when he’s hungry. That’s how we got the potatoes. Got the fish off in forty fathoms of water, two or three miles off the land, on the trawl. And that’s the truth. If we had a bit of pork, we’d have had fish, fat and potatoes!
William Stone, Henley Harbour, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
Feature panel: Loder Point Premises, St. Lewis, with photo and information about museum and location.
Images: Community history photos showing various scenes of catching and processing fish.
Display: Model boat and motor, trawl tub and fish box, shingled wall with display of fishing tools
Quotes: from local people, community history books.
Natural Environment
Quote: Jean-Jacques Audubon, Journal, June 17, 1833
“We breakfasted on the best of fresh codfish, and I never relished a breakfast more, I looked on our landing on the coast of Labrador as a matter of great importance. My thoughts were filled, not with airy castles, but with expectations of the new knowledge of birds and quadrupeds which I hoped to acquire.”
Graphics: Art Piece – 3 silk banners hanging depicting plants, marine mammals, birds, recognizable Labrador Landscape.Diana Dabinett, artist.
Display: Beach barrels. Computer with slide show of local natural attractions and where to find them. Computer will be housed in half of the old fish box, with only the flat screen showing for visitors to see slide show
Outdoor Attractions
Display: Located at the centre back on the false wall. Backdrop will be a reproduction of a painting with northern lights by Annette Campbell. A photographic display of outdoor activities will be floating in front of the painting, far enough to allow the viewer to see the painting behind.
Quote: Hunting and Trapping
We got caught out but never got lost, we found our way just the same. Spent one night in a snowhole. And it wasn’t all that bad. Just dug down a little place, it wasn’t very big because the woods wasn’t high. It was high enough to sit down in, that’s all. We had some sticks put across the hole, and we put the komatik over the hole and spread quilts on top of the komatic and had snow on ‘em. Nothing couldn’t come down through then, see.
Howard Saulter, Forteau, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
LIFESTYLE
Outdoor Lifestyle
Forestry
In Southeastern Labrador the forest industry, rather than the fishery, was the basis for settlement for some communities.Port Hope Simpson was founded in 1934 as a logging camp. After a sawmill and townsite were built on the Alexis River, it was named Port Hope Simpson in honour of the Commissioner of Natural Resources. The logging station hired several hundred loggers from nearby communities and unemployed men were brought in from Newfoundland. Since the decline of the cod fishery in recent years, forestry has offered new economic opportunities in the region.
Quote: Local community history collection? Maybe something about cutting firewood as well.
Graphics: Woodpile photos - historic photo of forest industry.
Fishery
For over 500 years this region had some of the richest fishing grounds on the east coast of North America.By 1992 the cod stocks had declined significantly due to overfishing and a moratorium closed the fishery. Local people feel that the closure of the cod fishery has taken way the birthright of the people of the Labrador coast.The future of the cod fishery remains uncertain.
Quote from fisherman about the Moratorium: ???
Quote: Fish, Fat and Potatoes
…So one day we had three or four quintals a fish. We brought it in and were clearin’ it away. And while we were clearin’ it away, I was cuttin’ the fish, I seen these round lumps in the fish’s puddock (stomach). And I got peculiar about it. I knowed it wasn’t rocks, wasn’t heavy enough. It was a fair sized fish, I s’pose he was twenty-five or thirty pounds. So I cut the puddock open, And I s’pose there was a quart of cooked potatoes in his puddock. There was ships goin’ along, I s’pose, passenger boats, always used to dump what was left from dinner overboard, and there was plenty of fish in the water everywhere then. And accordin’ as the potatoes was sinkin’ down, the fish was eatin’ em… ‘Cause a fish’d eat anything when he’s hungry. That’s how we got the potatoes. Got the fish off in forty fathoms of water, two or three miles off the land, on the trawl. And that’s the truth. If we had a bit of pork, we’d have had fish, fat and potatoes!
William Stone, Henley Harbour, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
Feature panel: Loder Point Premises, St. Lewis, with photo and information about museum and location.
Images: Community history photos showing various scenes of catching and processing fish.
Display: Model boat and motor, trawl tub and fish box, shingled wall with display of fishing tools
Quotes: from local people, community history books.
Indoor Lifestyle
A believable mid 20th century residential setting will be re-created.
Text: Quotes around the dispay from local community history books, talking about the local lifestyle.
Feature panel: Labrador Straits Museum with photo and information about museum and location.
Display: Hooked rug and rocking chair.Clothesline with mitts, socks, cossacks
Period cupboard with household items that have someattachment to crafts being produced locally. Preserves, bottled goods etc. on shelves.
Kitchen table with photo album and cookbook. The photo album will contain early pictures of the area, winter pictures, more quotes from community history books. The cookbook would include copies of the menus from local restaurants with information on some of the local dishes and wild foods.
Some quotes for Indoor Lifestyle:
My First New Pair of Shoes
…We had to get up early in the morning. And when they’d be out fishin’ we’d do our bit of work around the house. And soon as ever the boat came to the wharf we had to go on the wharf at the fish. It was pronged up and put in the boxes and then it was stowed away. I always headed fish. Aunt Maude… used to cut throats and I used to head. My father used to split it. And he salted too. And a couple of summers I used to head fish for Newfoundlanders. They come over fishin’, used to be over for a couple of months… I got a barrel of fish and I dried it in the fall and took it down to …Red Bay. I got four dollars for the quintal of fish, and I bought a pair of shoes, first pair of new shoes I had in my life!
Caroline O’Dell, Pinware, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
We Was Always Kept Busy
(for kitchen area or photo album. Possibly each paragraph with a different photo in the album)
We didn’t mix bread in the mornings then. We had to mix it in the night, let it rise all night and in the morning you’d get up and knead it down and that’d rise up when you put it in the pans, and have to rise again and it’d probably be suppertime or after supper before you had it all baked. You’d have ten or a dozen loaves for a big family. We used to make bread every second day. Three, sometimes four times a week. We used to use a sack of flour every two weeks.
Then you’d cook breakfast, clear that up and cook dinner. And cook supper. Mom had a great big boiler. She’d have that full of soup or whatever she was cooking. And a big bake pot, huge bake pot, iron pot, cooking on the stove.
And you had to wash in the old washing tub, with the board. And that was a couple of days work for a big family. You couldn’t do it all in one day! ‘Cause you had to lug the water in buckets.
Yes, we was always kept busy. We used to hook a lot of mats. And knit by night. You’d never sit down to knit by day, ‘cause you didn’t get the time. You couldn’t mat by day. And night-time, well we never got the lights like we do now....We used kerosene lamps.
Dora Stone, Henley Harbour, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
Christmas was Better Than ‘tis Now
Christmas was better than ‘tis now. Was something you’d look forward to. There wouldn’t be a dance Christmas Day, but every day after Christmas Day there’d be a dance. Go to somebody’s house, take back their stove, put ‘en over in the corner and dance away. When you was finished dancin’, before you left you had to put the stove out. Crowd of girls clean it up. Go home, next night go back again and do the same thing.
Stella Fowler, Capstan Island, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
GATEWAY EXHIBIT
History of the church and how it was restored. A brief history of the people of L’Anse Au Clair relating the Jersey connection.
Jersey Rooms:
During the late 1700s, Jersey merchants engaged in fishing and sealing began to move into the Southern Labrador region. James Dumaresq came from Jersey to Labrador in the early 1800s and settled at L’Anse au Cotard, now part of the community of L’Anse au Clair. An archaeological project in 2004 uncovered many household artefacts and items associated with the fishery, including those in this display. An interpreted trail leads from the community to this site.
Graphics: Church. Pictures of restoration, Heritage Quilt, Church Pew
Display: Jersey Rooms - Period cupboard with artefacts from Jersey Rooms, with an accompanying hutch for storage
INFORMATION DESK
The octagonal desk will be located to center front of the building. The top of the desk will display a highway map from Blanc Sablon to Cartwright. Additional maps will include a Provincial map, and a topographic map with notable sites highlighted.The front sides of the desk will be used to display community pictures, L’Anse Au Clair to Cartwright. The desk will also house computer terminals giving access for visitors to accommodations, and other services in the region, and making use of databases or websites already developed throughout Labrador and Viking Trail, and when developed throughout the Province.The underside of the desk will be used for brochure storage.
Graphics: Large map of Labrador Coastal Drive Region, Possibly QLF topographical trail map.
BATHROOMS AND BATHROOM HALLWAY WALL
Image for hallway: Full size image of Battle Harbour church and outhouses.
Bathrooms: The bathroom walls will be paneled with pine. Each bathroom will have a poster, with a photo of an outhouse in one corner, and the Roxanne’s story “Surviving the Outhouse”.
Surviving the Outhouse
Northeast winds often played havoc for fishermen stationed in Ship Harbour. Late in August the winds baffled through the long harbour and created waves that sometimes splash homes nestled along the shore.
One particularly windy day my father began his ritual, he started the fire in the old wood stove and walked to the outhouse that was hanging over the large rocks into the harbour. While doing his business, possibly looking at the pictures from the catalogue generally used for toilet paper, a large wave hit against the outhouse, toppling it over into the harbour without warning. Dad struggled to get to shore with the outhouse in pieces floating around him. Not knowing how to swim he climbed over rocks on the bottom until he got near to shore, but each effort to pull himself on shore was futile because a wave would pull him back into the water again. He made several attempts, thinking "Oh my God I am not going to die in the outhouse".
The family were still in bed when dad came back to the house, he swung open the door and in a loud, stuttering voice he said, "You had a like, not to see old Rol anymore!".He was soaking wet from head to toe, and his rubber boots were missing.
Roxanne Notley, Port Hope Simpson
BROCHURE DISPLAY
We are primarily an information centre and space has to be available to professionally display brochures. A display unit in the foyer and a wall unit is currently being used for brochure display. The Province requires that we display brochures by destination routes, which will use more space than is currently designated. A second display unit is planned approx. 5 ft long, for the centre of the church, near the information desk.
Graphic: Map of Nfld and Labrador above the brochure rack in foyer.
The foyer will also be used to display a reusable calendar of events and weather forecasts.
OUTDOOR EXHIBITS
Geology
Exterior rock garden with descriptive text display per sample. Text would be mounted on stands that could be simply inserted into soil for summer display. Good samples of rock from Forteau Formation, Brador Formation, Fossil Reef, Precambrian granite and any others that may be identified as appropriate to include here.
Flora,
Develop an onsite flower bed/beds with samples of local flowers. Flowers/plants would be identified by text mounted on stands that could be inserted into soil.
Some plant species may also be identified in this exhibit, ie, tree species, Labrador tea, partridgeberries, blackberries, bakeapples
Welcome Kiosk
Quote - Possibly for Outdoor Panel on Kiosk:
“Of late years Labrador has excited considerable interest amongst American tourists….About this great peninsula there is the “glamour of the arctic.” Tourists, without running any of the imminent perils of the frozen North, can enjoy in a summer cruise the bracing atmosphere and all the healthy influences of high northern latitudes; to the sportsman, the lover of grand coast scenery, and to the adventurous explorer, Labrador offers unparalleled attractions.”
D. W. Prowse, A History of Newfoundland, 1895
An exterior kiosk has been built to house information to orient people to the region for use especially when the Gateway is closed. Labrador Coastal Drive map will be on one side, provincial map on the other.
Graphics: Map with communities, distances and services indicated.
Outdoor Display: 3 Flag Poles and flags, Woodpile, Komatik
A believable mid 20th century residential setting will be re-created.
Text: Quotes around the dispay from local community history books, talking about the local lifestyle.
Feature panel: Labrador Straits Museum with photo and information about museum and location.
Display: Hooked rug and rocking chair.Clothesline with mitts, socks, cossacks
Period cupboard with household items that have someattachment to crafts being produced locally. Preserves, bottled goods etc. on shelves.
Kitchen table with photo album and cookbook. The photo album will contain early pictures of the area, winter pictures, more quotes from community history books. The cookbook would include copies of the menus from local restaurants with information on some of the local dishes and wild foods.
Some quotes for Indoor Lifestyle:
My First New Pair of Shoes
…We had to get up early in the morning. And when they’d be out fishin’ we’d do our bit of work around the house. And soon as ever the boat came to the wharf we had to go on the wharf at the fish. It was pronged up and put in the boxes and then it was stowed away. I always headed fish. Aunt Maude… used to cut throats and I used to head. My father used to split it. And he salted too. And a couple of summers I used to head fish for Newfoundlanders. They come over fishin’, used to be over for a couple of months… I got a barrel of fish and I dried it in the fall and took it down to …Red Bay. I got four dollars for the quintal of fish, and I bought a pair of shoes, first pair of new shoes I had in my life!
Caroline O’Dell, Pinware, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
We Was Always Kept Busy
(for kitchen area or photo album. Possibly each paragraph with a different photo in the album)
We didn’t mix bread in the mornings then. We had to mix it in the night, let it rise all night and in the morning you’d get up and knead it down and that’d rise up when you put it in the pans, and have to rise again and it’d probably be suppertime or after supper before you had it all baked. You’d have ten or a dozen loaves for a big family. We used to make bread every second day. Three, sometimes four times a week. We used to use a sack of flour every two weeks.
Then you’d cook breakfast, clear that up and cook dinner. And cook supper. Mom had a great big boiler. She’d have that full of soup or whatever she was cooking. And a big bake pot, huge bake pot, iron pot, cooking on the stove.
And you had to wash in the old washing tub, with the board. And that was a couple of days work for a big family. You couldn’t do it all in one day! ‘Cause you had to lug the water in buckets.
Yes, we was always kept busy. We used to hook a lot of mats. And knit by night. You’d never sit down to knit by day, ‘cause you didn’t get the time. You couldn’t mat by day. And night-time, well we never got the lights like we do now....We used kerosene lamps.
Dora Stone, Henley Harbour, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
Christmas was Better Than ‘tis Now
Christmas was better than ‘tis now. Was something you’d look forward to. There wouldn’t be a dance Christmas Day, but every day after Christmas Day there’d be a dance. Go to somebody’s house, take back their stove, put ‘en over in the corner and dance away. When you was finished dancin’, before you left you had to put the stove out. Crowd of girls clean it up. Go home, next night go back again and do the same thing.
Stella Fowler, Capstan Island, From Crooked Top of a Safety Pin, Partners in Learning
GATEWAY EXHIBIT
History of the church and how it was restored. A brief history of the people of L’Anse Au Clair relating the Jersey connection.
Jersey Rooms:
During the late 1700s, Jersey merchants engaged in fishing and sealing began to move into the Southern Labrador region. James Dumaresq came from Jersey to Labrador in the early 1800s and settled at L’Anse au Cotard, now part of the community of L’Anse au Clair. An archaeological project in 2004 uncovered many household artefacts and items associated with the fishery, including those in this display. An interpreted trail leads from the community to this site.
Graphics: Church. Pictures of restoration, Heritage Quilt, Church Pew
Display: Jersey Rooms - Period cupboard with artefacts from Jersey Rooms, with an accompanying hutch for storage
INFORMATION DESK
The octagonal desk will be located to center front of the building. The top of the desk will display a highway map from Blanc Sablon to Cartwright. Additional maps will include a Provincial map, and a topographic map with notable sites highlighted.The front sides of the desk will be used to display community pictures, L’Anse Au Clair to Cartwright. The desk will also house computer terminals giving access for visitors to accommodations, and other services in the region, and making use of databases or websites already developed throughout Labrador and Viking Trail, and when developed throughout the Province.The underside of the desk will be used for brochure storage.
Graphics: Large map of Labrador Coastal Drive Region, Possibly QLF topographical trail map.
BATHROOMS AND BATHROOM HALLWAY WALL
Image for hallway: Full size image of Battle Harbour church and outhouses.
Bathrooms: The bathroom walls will be paneled with pine. Each bathroom will have a poster, with a photo of an outhouse in one corner, and the Roxanne’s story “Surviving the Outhouse”.
Surviving the Outhouse
Northeast winds often played havoc for fishermen stationed in Ship Harbour. Late in August the winds baffled through the long harbour and created waves that sometimes splash homes nestled along the shore.
One particularly windy day my father began his ritual, he started the fire in the old wood stove and walked to the outhouse that was hanging over the large rocks into the harbour. While doing his business, possibly looking at the pictures from the catalogue generally used for toilet paper, a large wave hit against the outhouse, toppling it over into the harbour without warning. Dad struggled to get to shore with the outhouse in pieces floating around him. Not knowing how to swim he climbed over rocks on the bottom until he got near to shore, but each effort to pull himself on shore was futile because a wave would pull him back into the water again. He made several attempts, thinking "Oh my God I am not going to die in the outhouse".
The family were still in bed when dad came back to the house, he swung open the door and in a loud, stuttering voice he said, "You had a like, not to see old Rol anymore!".He was soaking wet from head to toe, and his rubber boots were missing.
Roxanne Notley, Port Hope Simpson
BROCHURE DISPLAY
We are primarily an information centre and space has to be available to professionally display brochures. A display unit in the foyer and a wall unit is currently being used for brochure display. The Province requires that we display brochures by destination routes, which will use more space than is currently designated. A second display unit is planned approx. 5 ft long, for the centre of the church, near the information desk.
Graphic: Map of Nfld and Labrador above the brochure rack in foyer.
The foyer will also be used to display a reusable calendar of events and weather forecasts.
OUTDOOR EXHIBITS
Geology
Exterior rock garden with descriptive text display per sample. Text would be mounted on stands that could be simply inserted into soil for summer display. Good samples of rock from Forteau Formation, Brador Formation, Fossil Reef, Precambrian granite and any others that may be identified as appropriate to include here.
Flora,
Develop an onsite flower bed/beds with samples of local flowers. Flowers/plants would be identified by text mounted on stands that could be inserted into soil.
Some plant species may also be identified in this exhibit, ie, tree species, Labrador tea, partridgeberries, blackberries, bakeapples
Welcome Kiosk
Quote - Possibly for Outdoor Panel on Kiosk:
“Of late years Labrador has excited considerable interest amongst American tourists….About this great peninsula there is the “glamour of the arctic.” Tourists, without running any of the imminent perils of the frozen North, can enjoy in a summer cruise the bracing atmosphere and all the healthy influences of high northern latitudes; to the sportsman, the lover of grand coast scenery, and to the adventurous explorer, Labrador offers unparalleled attractions.”
D. W. Prowse, A History of Newfoundland, 1895
An exterior kiosk has been built to house information to orient people to the region for use especially when the Gateway is closed. Labrador Coastal Drive map will be on one side, provincial map on the other.
Graphics: Map with communities, distances and services indicated.
Outdoor Display: 3 Flag Poles and flags, Woodpile, Komatik