The North Bay Narrative
One Hundred Years of a Newfoundland Outport Village
by Walter Staples
This is the remarkable story of a remote Newfoundland village and
its evolution from a community of a few families where men built boats by hand to
today's collection of cottages where men guide visiting Atlantic salmon fishermen.
North Bay's first settlers began building ocean-going fishing boats, cutting trees by
hand, pulling them from the woods to the river bank, and floating the logs downstream
to the village. The logs were pulled ashore and cut into boards by men using pit saws.
The completed vessels, some sixty feet long, were launched by hand to the river,
and sold to fishermen along the coast. From 1890 until 1968, three generations
built over 150 vessels.
The people of North Bay, never more than 80 at any one time,
began moving away from the village after World War II. Although the last year
around resident left in 1968, the village was already in transition.
Many former residents returned during the summer and old houses were replaced
with cottages. The La Poile River still runs by the revived village, however,
and local men guide fishermen who cast for Atlantic salmon.
Nonfiction. 194 pp. 6 x 9"
Paper, 0-914339-70-2. $15
Contact Information
James Staples
139 Lower Ridge Rd.
Loudon, NH 03307
E-mail: jimstaples@comcast.net
Also by Walter Staples: Blueberryland: Taming the Maine Wild Lowbush Blueberry and Country Boy and Selected Poems
Also about Newfoundland: Snowshoe and Lancet: Memoirs of a Frontier Newfoundland Doctor 1937-1948 by Robert Skidmore Ecke, M.D.
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