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Newfoundland Tourism Region : Central
BRUNNETTE ISLAND:
Located at the entrance to Fortune Bay, while not inhabited, and also not very large (only 20 km2 or 7.7 mi) Brunnette Island is included in this section because of its interesting history.
From Wikipedia comes the following.
A fishing community was established on the island in the 1800s, and at one time there were about 300 residents. In 1865 a 30-foot high lighthouse was built on the island.
The entire village was resettled off the island in the 1950s. A new lighthouse was built by 1924.
In 1964 an experimental attempt to introduce bison to Newfoundland was made, using Brunette Island as a test site; the attempt did not prove successful; the rocky landscape and sheer cliffs on the island were significantly different from the wide plains to which the bison were adapted.
With more success, wildlife biologists continued to use Brunette as a site for wildlife observation and a breeding ground for Arctic hare, caribou, ptarmigan, and moose.
The lack of large predators on the island allowed the populations to expand as far as food resources would allow. At times the island has been opened to hunters.
From October 12-23, 2016, Mack McGowen, a native of Tyler, Texas, lived alone on Brunette Island and streamed the experience live on Facebook in a documentary titled "Castaway Live."
While McGowen had planned to stay on the island for 3-weeks he only lasted 12 days because of the weather conditions (high winds, etc.)
The CBC in a post which was posted on Nov. 1, 2016, entitled "Castaway Live Star packs it in after 12 days Alone" McGowen is quoted as saying "it was just really, really blowing - blew the window out of a little shack I was hanging out in, blew the door open."
McGowen reported that he lost about 20 pounds over the 12 days, as he was only able to eat around 1000 calories a day from what he could forage from the land and the water.
"I had] berries, oyster weed, which is a small weed that grows near rocky dunes, rocket, which is a kind of spicy plant, and of course there was some mussels here and there, if I could find them," he said.
His experience was the basis for spoof produced by the CBC television as one of their shows, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
A link to the production is included in the CBC post. McGowen stated that "he's seen the 22 Minutes sketch and thinks it's 'hilarious.
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/MercersCove