Southern Bay and Princeton: Located on Southern Bay, which, according to the information presented in the ENL entry, was also known as "South'ard Bay", the community takes its name from the position of the inlet in Bonavista Bay.

The following comes from the Encyclopedia: In most early records the name refers to the nearby community of Charleston, while some early records for Southern Bay also include Princeton.

Southern Bay proper is a community spread along the old railway line and the Cabot Highway on the southeastern side of the Bay.

Southern Bay first appears in the Census in 1869, with a population of 109 (including both Charleston and Princeton), most of whom were engaged in the Labrador fishery and had moved into the Bay from older communities to the north, such as Tickle Cove and Red Cliff.

In Southern Bay proper there was also considerable subsistence farming, and by the early twentieth century there were lobster factories and two sawmills in the community. But after the railway was built through the community in 1911 lumbering became the major economic activity in the area.

Railway ties were cut for the local line, timber was sent to the Avalon Peninsula, pulpwood to Grand Falls and pit props exported through Musgravetown.

Today, for census purposes, the two communities of Southern Bay and Princeton are "grouped" together, although they are not formally amalgamated.

The 2016 Census reported the population of the two communities to be 310, down (15.5%) from the 367 reported 5-years earlier in 2011. Princeton was originally known as one of the many Seal Coves around the province.

According to material written in the ENL"... the first settler was Samuel Prince, who moved to Seal Cove from Tickle Cove in about 1840.

The area had likely been known to residents of Tickle Cove for some years as a "winterhouse", for cutting wood and trapping".

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/SouthernBay