Lawn, (population 583 ), is a town located at the tip of the
Burin Peninsula on
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
's South coast,
Newfoundland and Labrador. Lawn is spread around a small harbour in a relatively lush valley. According to one local tradition it was this lushness that inspired Captain James Cook to name the place Lawn Harbour. But it has also been speculated that a Frenchman named the community after a doe caribou that he spotted there.
Lawn is a community whose survival over the past two hundred years has depended entirely on the fishery. The abundance of fish in the waters surrounding Lawn (formerly known as Laun) attracted seasonal fishermen from France, Portugal, Spain and England. These fishermen came over in large fishing ships and returned to their homelands in the fall. This type of migratory fishery continued to exist on the Burin Peninsula well into the eighteen hundreds. However, in 1763 an important event occurred which had a tremendous impact on the development of permanent settlements on the Burin Peninsula.
The town of Lawn was formed as Community Council in 1952 and was changed to a Town Council in 1968.
History
One of Newfoundland's first hydroelectric generators was commissioned in Lawn in 1930.
1942 naval disaster
In the pre-dawn hours of February 18, 1942, three
United States Navy ships ran aground on the shore of the Burin Peninsula between Lawn and the nearby community of
St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman ...
. It was determined that the
USS ''Pollux'',
USS ''Truxtun'' and
USS ''Wilkes'' made a navigation error while en route to
Naval Station Argentia. Under exceptionally difficult storm and ice conditions eight residents of Lawn assisted in the rescue of survivors. 185 sailors survived and 203 died as a result of the disaster.
Dead Reckoning: The Pollux-Truxton Disaster
/ref>
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
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Lawn 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.
See also
* Burin Peninsula
* List of cities and towns in Newfoundland and Labrador
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawn, Newfoundland And Labrador
Populated coastal places in Canada
Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador
Fishing communities in Canada