The Heritage Run on the Burin Peninsula

The boot shaped Burin Peninsula is a world all to itself. The catching, making and selling of fish has been the area's main business since the 1500s. From a diverse European background which is reflected in the place names of the peninsula the people traded with Nova Scotia and the New England to built their distinct architecture.

Burin Highway by Manfred Buchheit

The history of the peninsula is replete with sea tragedies and acts of heroism. The schooners and small open boats of the last hundred years were often lost in the fierce storms on the water. Smuggling contraband liquor and cigarettes from St. Pierre has been going on for at least two centuries.

The gateway to the Burin Peninsula is at Goobies where Route 1 and 210 intersect. Passing through Goobies the road winds along the inner reaches of northwest Placentia Bay. Side trips to Goose Cove and North Harbour and later on Garden Cove take you off the main road into sheltered coves. Placentia Bay has some 365 islands, one of which, Woody Island, can be reached by a small boat from Garden Cove. On the island are tourist accommodations and great views. There is also a tour boat that will take travellers around the islands.

The red fences that you see on the side of the fences are snow fences designed and placed to catch the 20 foot snowdrifts that block the road in winter.

The popular summer home area of Swift Current is known for its angling pleasures. There are new log cabin chalets available for rent and are located at the waters edge. Just down the road is Piper's Hole River Provincial Park which contains a scheduled salmon river. The spirit of a French "piper" lingers in the valley after dying in a battle at nearby Garden Cove.

Just south of the park you will emerge unto the barrens; rocky outcrops, thousands on ponds, bogs, tundra and orphaned boulders just as they were left by the retreating glacier last week. If you have knee high boots you can join the locals picking blueberries, cranberries, marshberries, bakeapples, bilberries and other fruit that grow close to the grown on the barrens.

There are a number of seabird colonies along the coast from Woody Island, Spanish Room Point, Iron Island and Colombier Island. Birds nesting here include herring and black-back gulls, Arctic terns, ring-billed gulls and Leach's storm petrels.

Marystown was called Mortier until a local Catholic priest took it upon himself to rename the community during World War I. Just off Marine Drive in Little Bay east of Marystown is Walsh's Road and the Jerome Walsh Museum. This private collection of artifacts and their owner have a wealth if interesting stories to tell.

Settled in the 1700s, Burin is sheltered from the sea by offshore islands. The community museum is one of the best on the island and features exhibits on education, fishing and daily life. Across the street is another branch in the old bank building and it contains displays of wildlife and the tidal wave that wrecked Burin in 1929.

When Capt James Cook was mapping the Newfoundland coast in the 1760s he used Burin as one of his seasonal headquarters. Atop a high hill that still bears his name he kept a look out for smugglers and illegal fishing. His maps contributed greatly to safe navigation around Newfoundland.

In Lewins Cove is a water based amusement park which is popular with the local residents and nearby is the Freshwater Pond Provincial Park.

Through Salmonier and Epworth to the town of St. Lawrence. The first person to settle here was a survivor of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's shipwreck on Sable Island in 1583. St. Lawrence has North America's only fluorspar deposit which was mined for most of thiscentury. There is a town museum devoted to the mine and the many miners who died of congestive lung disease such as silicosis.

During World War II, nearby Chambers Cove was the site of a marine disaster. In a 1942 storm two American warships, the Truxton and the Pollux, sank taking the lives of over 200 sailors. Another 180 were saved thanks to the people of St. Lawrence who risked their lives to bring the sailors over treacherous cliffs to safety. In the summer of

McCallom 22x30", Watercolor, 1997

By: John Joy

1992 some of the survivors returned to dedicate the Echoes of Valour monument. The American government showed its thanks in the 1940s by building and equipping a 22 bed hospital that still serves the area.

Grand Bank is the most famous and beautiful community on the Burin Peninsula. Settled by the French in the 1650s and then taken over by the British in the 18th century. The town has two museums. The Southern Newfoundland Seamen's Museum is devoted to the men and ships of the fishery. It is in a former Expo 67 building shaped like sails and it also houses the Burin Peninsula Soccer Hall of Fame. Soccer is "the" sport on the peninsula. The other museum is called the People's Museum as each year residents loan precious artifacts for display.

There is a Heritage walk through the town to show the architectural wonders of the place, with some very fine examples of the Queen Anne style. There is also a Marine Walk and a Wilderness Walk to introduce to the surrounding countryside.

To Scenic Tours: Eastern Region