Markland: Located on the Avalon Peninsula, south of Whitboume, Markland was founded in 1934 as an "experimental land settlement".

The name of the town, Markland, did not come from the language of one of the "usual" settlers, rather it came from the Norse word for "wood" "Markland" translating to "forest land". As far back as 1,000 AD, it is known that Leif Erikson explored three "unknown lands", Markland being the second of the three.

According to the information contained in the ENL Markland "is widely considered the first part of mainland North America to be visited by Europeans. Based on the Sagas' descriptions, historians have suggested that Markland was a forested part of the Labrador coast, with the Groswater Bay area being the likely point of contact.

Over the next 100 years or more, the Vikings on several expeditions to Markland for wood encountered natives whom they referred to as Skraelings - probably forebears of the Innu and Inuit". The history behind the "experiment" is very interesting.

From the ENL comes the following: The "Markland experiment" began in the spring of that year [1934] when a group of private citizens in St. John's approached the Commission of Government, offering to act as trustees for ten families of ex-servicemen who wished to farm as an alternative to collecting relief.

The Commission advanced relief payments to the trustees and offered a block of land for the settlement on the road between Whitbourne and Colinet, along the Rocky River.... Beginning in 1935 Commissioners Thomas Lodge and John Hope Simpson began to promote an expansion of Markland as an experiment in "social and homes were regeneration."

A manager was appointed for the settlement provided for 120 families in six numbered "communities," as well as two sawmills, a store, two interdenominational "folk schools," a furniture-making shop and a cottage hospital. Settlers were recruited from the areas hardest hit by the Depression - St. John's and Conception Bay (particularly Victoria) By the 1935 Censusthere were 635 residents....

Originally the Commission had great hopes for Markland and urged expansion of the experiment to establish other agricultural communities. At first land was to be worked communally, but by 1939 it had been largely divided among the settlers.

Indeed, by the outbreak of World War II, the Commission had somewhat soured on land settlement as a cure for Newfoundland's social and economic ills. The cost of maintaining the settlers at a site inland, far away from most services, proved to be much higher than original estimates, a circumstance compounded by the way that the community was spread out along a six-mile stretch of road.

In addition, many of the settlers objected to the manner in which the community was administered and left or were expelled. (On May 16, 1936 the Daily News ran an article headlined "Is Markland in Russia?" which chronicled how the Butt family was ejected from the settlement after the children "put their tongues out at Mrs. Cochius [wife of one of the original trustees]")

By 1940 the government was not participating as actively in the land settlement scheme at Markland and many of the more novel aspects of the experiment (such as communal farming and interdenominational schools) had been abandoned.

As employment prospects increased in Newfoundland during World War II many families ceased farming. Markland residents were employed at Argentia after 1941 and by the end of the War Markland was less a farming community than a dormitory for workers employed elsewhere.

The population was 395 in 1945 and has since decreased, services becoming concentrated at Whitbourne. Students have been bused from Markland since the 1960s and the Markland hospital was phased out from the early 1980s and closed in 1985, when a new clinic was established in Whitbourne.

In 1990 there was little evidence of the "Markland experiment" left in the community, apart from the former staff house and community barn near the Rocky River bridge (in what was formerly community #1).

In 2016 there were 223 residents in Markland, an increase of 13.8% from the total in 2011

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/MarklandNL