P.O. Box 9 |
Newfoundland Tourism Region : Central
Fleur de Lys: The last of the communities as one heads south in the Petit Nord, one comes to a community with the charming name of "Fleur de Lys", which in English refers to the Lily Flower.
From the ENL.com website one can learn that the community was not actually named after the flower, per se, but rather from the national symbol of France.
According to local lore, a rock formation, 820 ft high, which has three hummocks (small rounded hills) and is said to "have resembled" the "reminder of [their] homeland". Fleur de Lys may have been known as a fishing settlement in the 17th century, but since the 1990s, it has become very important in Newfoundland's history because of precontact mining.
The term "precontact" refers to "the period before contact of an Indigenous people with an outside culture". In 1997 archaeologist Christopher Nagle found evidence that artifacts, small soapstone vessels used as lamps and cooking pots, were of the Maritime Archaic peoples (approx. 4,000 years ago) as well as those from the Middle Dorset Paleo-Eskimo period (1,200 to 1,800 years ago).
The area is still being researched and the site has been developed as a tourism site, and it includes a small interpretive museum and fairly recently it has been designated as a Registered Historic Site. In the 2016 Census there were 244 residents listed, a decrease of 7.9% since 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/FleurdeLys