Wreckhouse is a geographic location in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

that is well known for extremely high winds. Situated at the southern end of the

Long Range Mountains The Long Range Mountains are a series of mountains along the west coast of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. The long range mountains form the northernmost section of the Appalachian mountain chain on the eastern seaboard of North Amer ...

at the western mouth of the

Codroy Valley The Codroy Valley is a valley in the southwestern part of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Codroy Valley is a glacial valley formed in the Anguille Mountains, a sub-range of the Long Range ...

, the name originated because high winds - often well in excess of hurricane force - would occasionally blow railway cars on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

trains operated by the

Newfoundland Railway The Newfoundland Railway operated on the island of Newfoundland from 1898 to 1988. With a total track length of , it was the longest narrow-gauge railway system in North America. Early construction ] In 1880, a committee of the Newfoundland Leg ...

completely off the track. The word "Wreckhouse" was added to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary in 2004. Although the railway was closed in 1988, the winds are still a hazard to vehicles on Newfoundland and Labrador Route 1, Highway 1 and transport trucks occasionally get blown off the road. Winds have been measured over 200 km/h. Lockie MacDougall, a farmer and trapper, was born in 1896 and lived at Wreckhouse. He had a natural sixth sense to the changes in the weather and this ability allowed him to be employed by

Robert Gillespie Reid Sir Robert Gillespie Reid (12 October 1842 – 3 June 1908) was a Scottish railway contractor most famous for building large railway bridges in Canada and the United States. Founder of Reid Newfoundland Company, from 1889 until his death ...

, whose company built the

. MacDougall was paid 20 dollars a month and would inform the railway if it was safe for trains to pass, performing this task for thirty years until his death in 1965. His wife, Emily, continued on with the task until she moved away from the area in 1972. Today, one can see Lockie's face painted in a mural on the side of local pizza establishment, Louis Gees in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador. An

anemometer In meteorology, an anemometer () is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common instrument used in weather stations. The earliest known description of an anemometer was by Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti ...

operated by the

Meteorological Service of Canada The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC; french: Service météorologique du Canada – SMC) is a division of Environment and Climate Change Canada, which primarily provides public meteorological information and weather forecasts and warnings o ...

currently provides remote wind data for the Newfoundland and Labrador weather office in Gander which distributes warnings to travellers should the speed be sufficient. The term Wreckhouse Winds is used by the MSC to specifically refer to dangerous wind conditions in this geographic area.

Popular culture

Wreckhouse also provides inspiration for Wreckhouse Jazz & Blues, producers of the Wreckhouse International Jazz & Blues Festival.wreckhousejazzandblues.com
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References

Geography of Newfoundland and Labrador {{Newfoundland-geo-stub