Sunny day at Rose Blanche lighthouse (J)

Rose Blanche – Harbour le Cou is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

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 southwest shore, about 45 km at the end of Route 470 from

Port aux Basques Channel-Port aux Basques is a town at the extreme southwestern tip of Newfoundland fronting on the western end of the Cabot Strait. A Marine Atlantic ferry terminal is located in the town which is the primary entry point onto the island of Newfou ...

. This community is located in a barren area on the east side of a small bay. In this bay there are 2

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

s that were mainly used to provide shelter for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

vessels. Scenery includes the rugged

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

coastline The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

, and the white and rocky

cliffs In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

of "Diamond Cove". Its granite

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

was in operation from 1873 to the 1940s. After it was abandoned in the 1940s the building fell into ruins. The spiral stone staircase extends into the tower wall and kept the tower from collapsing while the remainder of the lighthouse fell to ruin. In 1999 the lighthouse was fully reconstructed and serves as a tourist attraction. From Rose Blanche there is a passenger ferry that services the isolated community of La Poile to the east.

History

The Rose Blanche harbour was first used by French migratory fishermen who came in the early 1700s to fish the nearby Rose Blanche Bank which had an abundance of

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

. The harbor provided good anchorage, being well sheltered by Caines Island and Rose Blanche Point. The name Rose Blanche is a corruption of the French words "roche blanche" (white rock) which can be seen at Diamond Cove. This white

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

was highly visible to the French migratory fishermen when they first approached the shore in the early 1700s. The first

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

in Rose Blanche arrived and probably settled in 1810, though the French had held seasonal premises in the area in the 18th century. Rose Blanche was first settled for its sheltered harbours and close location to fishing grounds. By the 1869

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, the

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

had grown to 663, and the area continued to attract new settlers from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

to participate in the fishery. By the 1870s the community had a number of businesses which participated in the local fishery and the

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

fishery.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, Rose Blanche-Harbour le Cou 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.

Amenities

The 1950s and 1960s brought significant changes to the community with the opening of a fresh-frozen fish plant, plus resettlement of outlying communities in Rose Blanche, as a result of the road connection completed between Rose Blanche and

in 1961. St. Michael's Elementary school was shut down by the government due to lack of funding. There is also a small gas station, a couple of restaurants, and a new artists' retreat centre and guest house called "RoseSea House". The Anglican church is dedicated to "Saint Michael and All Angels," which has a "high church" tradition. A few decades ago the former church building was replaced by a new one.

References

External links

History of Rose Blanche

Rose Blanche

The Parish of Rose BlancheRose Blanche-Harbour le Cou - Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, vol. 4, p. 635-637.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rose Blanche - Harbour Le Cou Populated coastal places in Canada Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Fishing communities in Canada

History

Demographics

Amenities

See also

References

External links