The availability of a good supply of fish was the initial reason for settling in Newfoundland and in order to fill the need, people gravitated to those areas where there was both an abundant supply, and favourable conditions to process the catch. One of the best sites was known on the map as the `Offer Waddam Island.' To those who fished there it was known as `The Million Dollar Rock.' In this brief folk history, Roland Abbott tells how each summer his family and others left their homes on the mainland of Newfoundland, and spent the entire season catching and `making' fish on this flat rock off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. They built houses, wharfs, even churches. Although there was ample time for fun and games, the children also played an important part in what was in essence an family enterprise.
Roland Abbott was born in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland and, after some early adventures at sea, including surviving a shipwreck, he became a teacher, a town councillor and eventually mayor. He has also been a columnist for the weekly paper The Gander Beacon.
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