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| Photo Title: | Resettlement note regarding Safe Harbour and Pinchards Island, Newfoundland |
| Image No.: | PF-317.160 |
| Image Location: | Resettlement/pf317_160.jpg |
| Date of Creation: | Digitized 2004 (originally created 1953) |
| Physical Description: | 1 digital document : col. |
| Biography/Admin History: | Safe Harbour (pop. 1951, 155) is a resettled fishing community located around a well-sheltered harbour on the north side of Bonavista Bay, about 7 km southwest of Wesleyville. The community first appears in the Census in 1874, with a population of 98, but grew to more than 300 people by 1901. Tradition has it that the first settlers were the Sturge family. Other common family names included Attwood, Blackwood, Burry, Davis, Dyke, Jeans (Janes), Gillingham, King, Knee, Stratton and Wakeley. Jacob Attwood had established a general business by 1894, while a church and school were built between Safe Harbour and nearby Southwest Arm to serve both communities. The peak recorded population of Safe Harbour (326) was in 1921, by which time the community was already past its glory days. A downturn in the Labrador fishery became a virtual collapse in the late 1920s and 1930s, and by 1945 the population had declined to 181. Many of those who left went to work in the lumberwoods in Newfoundland, while others went to Canada. By the time of Confederation the Labrador schooner fishery was no more. But the remaining inhabitants of Safe Harbour were still absent from the community for much of the year, as loggers or mariners. Safe Harbour was one of the first communities to be abandoned during the first resettlement program, with most of the people moving across Valleyfield Harbour in 1954 and 1955 to the municipality of Badger's Quay-Valleyfield-Pool's Island. From the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador Pinchards Island (pop. 1951, 218), a resettled fishing community, was one of the first settled sites in northern Bonavista Bay. An 1806 register of fishing rooms in Bonavista Bay noted three premises at Pinchards Island, all said to have been established in 1802. By 1827, the population had climbed to 120. A school building was erected in 1844 and also served as a chapel. In 1845 there were 291 people at Pinchards Island, making it the second largest community in northern Bonavista Bay, next to Greenspond. From 359 people in 1857 the population had dropped to 264 in 1874. In the early 1900s, as Bonavista north ports such as Newtown and Wesleyville came to dominate the seal hunt and were increasingly involved in the Labrador fishery, the population of Pinchards Island again increased, reaching a peak of 413 in 1921. However, a series of poor years for the inshore fishery, coupled with a drastic decline in the Labrador fishery, led most young people to leave the island to seek work. In 1953, after several years in which it had been difficult to obtain teachers for the school, the remaining residents, fewer than 200, moved, most of them going to Newtown. Apparently pleas for government assistance for the move from Pinchards Island played a role in the province's decision to implement a formal resettlement program the next year. In 1992 some residents of Newtown maintained seasonal premises at Pinchards Island, which had also become a popular place for residents of nearby communities to pick bakeapples each August. From the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Collector: | MHA |
| Source Donor: | CNS Archives, Stacey Collection, Box 1, Folder 1.01.001 |
| Collection Title: | Resettlement Digital Photograph Collection |
| Associated Material: | Craig Leonard Photograph Collection, PF-328 |
| Restrictions on Access: | Copyright held by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| Copyright: | c |
| Physical Condition: | Good |
| Notes: | Title based on contents of image. Copied from the Alec Stacey Collection, Archives and Special Collections Division, QE II Library, Memorial University |
| Subjects: | Newfoundland and Labrador Household Resettlement Program. |
