Little Bay, Little Bay East, Little Bay Islands and Little Burnt Bay: Located in various parts of the province, these four communities are grouped together for two reasons, firstly they all have the same "qualifier" (i.e., "little"), hence making the place name fall under the classification of "Relative Descriptive Names" and secondly because, terms of legislation, they are all "towns" that fall under The Municipalities Act, of 1999.

Little Bay, located at the bottom of Little Bay in Notre Dame Bay, is approximately 19 km (11.8 mi) north of Springdale. This community should not be confused with the "other" Little Bay which is on the South Coast (i.e., the Burin Peninsula), and is part of the town of Marystown.

According to the ENL sources, "this" Little Bay was the most important mining communities in the area as far back as the late 1870s. A local fisherman discovered a copper deposit and sold the pertinent information to three people who held the mining licence for the area. The mine site, in turn, was leased to the Betts Cove Mining Company in 1878 and "the government, recognizing the potential of the area, extended telegraph lines to the site that same year and a town quickly sprang up". Because of the amount of ore shipped to Swansea, Wales, in its first year of operation (10,000 tons), the mine was given the nickname the "El Dorado of Newfoundland". James P. Howley, the noted geologist and surveyor, wrote the following in 1918 just before his death, in a manuscript he entitled "Reminiscences of Forty-Two Years of Exploration in and about Newfoundland" referring specifically to his time in Notre Dame Bay and Little Bay (then known as "Indian Bight'') in 1880.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin 0f 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/EnglishHarbourEast