We now know that Vikings ‘discovered’
the New World around 1000 AD, and created a
settlement on the tip of the western peninsula
at L'Anse Aux Meadows. But a harsh climate,
dangerous seas and disputes with native peoples,
whom they called Skraelings, eventually sent
them home.
Jacques Cartier proved to
the Europeans that Newfoundland was an island
by sailing through the Strait of Belle Isle
in 1534, reputedly anchoring in Gros Morne's
Cow Cove. Basque whalers visited the park's
Bonne Bay during the 1600's, but the west
coast remained wild and largely uninhabited
even as Captain James Cook was charting the
popular fishing waters in 1768. By the Treaty
of 1713, the French retained fishing rights
to the western shores, even after Britain gained
sovereignty. It wasn't until the late 1700's
that a few transient fishermen, tired of the
long voyages home, began to erect fishing shacks
along the coast in order to overwinter. A trading
station founded in 1809 is the earliest indication
of permanent settlement.
Life on the coast has always
been a challenge, tied to the fortunes of fish
stocks and the vagaries of the sea. The park
was established in 1973 and, as was the policy
at that time, residents were offered land to
relocate outside park boundaries. As local services
like schools, banks and shops closed down, many
left their homes and moved to larger centres.
But the tenacity of the Newfoundland people
is not to be underestimated, and many people
would not be moved. As a result, Gros Morne
is one of the few National Parks to include
seven enclaves of privately owned land within
its boundaries. The people of Rocky Harbour,
Woody Point, St. Paul's and Sally's
Cove are now as likely to be employed in tourism
or park management as in fishing.
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