1 MUNICIPAL DR |
Newfoundland Tourism Region : Avalon
Little Harbour: Off a small highway marked as 2-1-01 on the Traveller's Map, there is a community on the Placenta Bay side shown as Little Harbour.
All in all, there are many communities in Newfoundland that are or were known as Little Harbour, however, according to the material written in the ENL, this community's "correct" name is 'Little Harbour East". The following is from that source:
A fishing community on the south side of the Isthmus of Avalon, Little Harbour East is believed to have been settled in the early 1800s by families moving in from the islands of Placentia Bay.
Upshall, a name common to Little Harbour East, was recorded in various nearby communities, including Fairhaven and Haystack, throughout the early to mid-1800s.
A family tradition suggests that a Baker from Wales settled at Harbour Buffett before changing his name to Upshall and moving to Little Harbour East (Seary).
According to McAlpine's Newfoundland Directory the surnames Dicks, Lilly and White were also in Little Harbour East by the late 1800s.
Since Little Harbour (West) was abandoned in 1967, Little Harbour East has been the only settled Little Harbour in Placentia Bay.
Consequently, the "East" is often dropped from the name.
The population was first recorded with that of La Manche for a total of 20 people in 1836.
The inshore cod fishery was the economic mainstay and, except for a few years in the 1870s when some residents worked in the La Manche mine, would remain so for more than a century.
Both a school and a church had been established at Little Harbour East by 1898 and throughout the late 1800s and 1900s the population steadily increased as established families expanded and new families moved in from more isolated areas.
At the time of the government's resettlement program in the mid-1960s there were 138 people in the community.
The number reached 212 by 1976 as the community became a reception centre for at least 23 families relocating from settlements on Long Island (including Harbour Buffett, Kingwell, Lower Tickles and Northeast Harbour Buffett) and from Isle Valen.
By the latter half of the 1970s the community had succeeded in getting a new wharf and in having a feeder plant built. Soon after it also had electricity, telephones and a 5-km access road to the Trans-Canada Highway.
In 1990 the fishery was still an important part of the Little Harbour East economy, but the scarcity of cod in the vicinity obliged fishermen to return to such areas as Harbour Buffett and Red Island during the spring and summer months.
Population in Little Harbour East in 2016 was 91, down from 111 in 2011 (a 18% decrease over 5 years). For information on La Manche Provincial Park see section on Provincial Parks.
Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill
Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/LittleHarbourEast