Cow Head is a town in the Canadian province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

. The town had a population of 478 in the

Canada 2016 Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...

. The Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum (c. 1941) in Cow Head, Newfoundland and Labrador is on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. Cow Head is home to one of the longest sandy beaches in Newfoundland as well as a large area of sand dunes. It also has panoramic views of the Long Range Mountains of Gros Morne. An interesting geologic feature found at Cow Head is a section of the former continental margin of

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America, althoug ...

which dipped into the Iapetus ocean. There is a walking trail leading to a lighthouse constructed in 1909 on the summer side or "head" of Cow Head.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Cow Head had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Arts and culture

Cow Head is the home to the Gros Morne Theatre Festival. A new theatre named in honour of nurse, Myra Bennett, is currently under construction and aiming for completion in 2021.

Geology

The Cow Head Group is made up of a series of

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margin ...

strata that contain numerous boulders made of

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate ...

. These have yielded numerous

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

fossils and have led to the identification of new species, including '' Catillicephala cifelli'', named after paleontologist Rich Cifelli.

Gallery

File:Aerial_view_of_Cow_Head_from_the_"summer_side".jpg, Aerial photo of the Cow Head Peninsula File:Sandy Beach in Cow Head, Newfoundland.jpg, Sandy beach in Cow Head, 2020

References

External links