Centreville-Wareham-Trinity: Located south of Port Rexton, from its name, it is obvious that this municipality is composed of three distinct smaller communities.

The combined population of the three towns was 1,147 in 2016, a slight decrease of 1.2% from the 1,161 found in 2011. The amalgamation occurred in 1992. From the town's website comes the following description of the town:

Our Town has a vibrant "small business sector" and many politicians and bureaucrats alike refer to our community as the Entrepreneurial Capital of Newfoundland & Labrador. We are fortunate to be home to many successful small business operations from the manufacturing, food processing, retail sector and service industry.

Located in the well-known recreational fishing of Indian Bay region of Bonavista North makes us a favorite tourist destination year round. We fondly boast of the fabulous fishing in our many ponds and rivers as well as the vast wilderness playground that is available to outdoor enthusiasts.

Come visit us and enjoy the natural wilderness opportunities for seasonal fishing, hunting, snowmobiling and other available year round activities.

1. Centreville: The place name "Centreville" is such a common appellation for communities in North America (there being over 45, including Centreville's in Nova Scotia, Ontario, New Brunswick and British Columbia) it is hard to determine its origin, but one can only assume that those chose the name of this "Centreville", like all others felt they were in the "centre" of somewhere "special".

When one looks at the history behind the community one can surmise that the "early settlers" this particular Centreville were thinking that they were in the centre "civilization" given where they came from. The following from the ENL will shed light on how the community was started:

Centreville is a very new community by Newfoundland standards. It was begun in 1959 by settlers moving from Fair Island just off the coast.

The people of the isolated community of Fair Island, realizing the importance of access to communication and transportation linkages, began to move to the Newfoundland mainland. They were not particularly interested in becoming part of an established community, so they moved to an ideal location along the North Shore Highway and began to stake out claims.

The Provincial Government wanted to avoid strip development but the people would not settle back from the highway unless proper secondary roads were constructed for them.

As a result of these and other demands the Provincial Government carried out a topographical survey of the area. They lined off one hundred residential lots 30 m (100 ft) by 60 m (200 ft) as well as commercial, church and school sites.

Several roads were constructed and plans were outlined for the provision of services such as water and sewerage. A circular was sent to those people still living on Fair Island but many of them were still reluctant to move.

To demonstrate commitment to the project a new school was built in 1960. By May of the following year the families still on Fair Island, thirty-six in all, had agreed to move during the summer.

The government offer involved moving houses as well as people. Houses were buoyed with thirty to fifty oil drums and floated across the arm to their new site.

A little distance from Fair Island was a smaller fishing community known as Silver Fox Island. These people refused to move to Centreville, because they considered it to be too far inland.

They wanted to be near the water to watch over their stages and boats, so they squatted at the bottom of Southwest Arm, Indian Bay in a cove they named Black Duck Cove, situated about halfway between Centreville and Wareham.

Provincial Government planners considered it to be a suburb of Centreville and included it in plans for municipal services such as water supply, but it later became part of Wareham.

The community of Centreville is unique in Newfoundland because its formation was the only major attempt by the Provincial Government to plan settlement migration from older established areas into newly created communities.

(Further resettlement saw people moving from one established area to another.) In the beginning the community consisted almost entirely of Fair Islanders. The first census of the community (1961) gave the population as 186. This was before the last families moved over from Fair Island. By the 1966 census the population had risen to 439.

2. Wareham: Located just north of Centreville, the derivative of the place name for the community of Wareham, on the other hand is well known. Wareham was named after Wareham, Dorset, UK, the hometown of the original settlers, the Firmages.

According to history presented by contributors to the ENL, "although Wareham was not settled by the Firmages until 1918, the Northwest Arm of Indian Bay had been settled since the early 1800s, while Southwest Arm was frequented by fishermen from the islands of Bonavista Bay for winter woods work and boat building.

When William Firmage and his brothers moved in from Fair Islands in 1918 it was with the intention of expanding these traditional winter pursuits and, with the construction of a sawmill, establishing a year-round community".

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/CentrevilleWarehamTrinity