New Harbour is a

local service district A local service district is a type of designated place in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. In the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) ...

and

designated place A designated place (DPL) is a type of community or settlement identified by Statistics Canada that does not meet the criteria used to define municipalities or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the Canadian census as the ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

Newfoundland and Labrador 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 ...

. It is on the east shore of Trinity Bay, along Provincial Route 80. Route 80's intersection with Route 73 is inside New Harbour. Going as far back as 1800, it was a major ship building centre. In the past, the railroad served to provide the transportation of paper from the Grand Falls Mill to Heart's Content, for shipping to foreign markets.

History

New Harbour was first settled by Europeans, during the mid-1700s. Various families settled in New Harbour, each in its own Room; (a Room is a few acres of land where sons, grandsons etc. all built their homes). For example, Thornes' Room fronts on the Pond; generations of Thornes have built homes on the nearby lands. Earlier family names include Pitcher, Williams, Newhook, Higdon, Woodman, Pollett, Cranford, Hillier, Hefford, George, Thorne. The people of New Hr. have made livings from industries such as Fishing, Shipbuilding, the Pothead Drive, Hunting, Mink Ranching, Farming and from Working Seasonally, in distant places. Going as far back as 1800, or perhaps before that, the Newhook Family, led by Master Shipbuilder Charles Newhook (first) were noted as being Newfoundland's greatest family of shipbuilders. Charles Newhook (second) moved to New Harbour from Trinity, also in Trinity Bay around 1806 to become master shipbuilder and leading inhabitant. From that point in time up to the early 1900s, New Harbour was a premier site for shipbuilding.

Archaeological site

At excavations like Anderson's Cove near New Harbour, evidence points to it being home to the

Dorset culture The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in ...

, maritime archaic First Nations and the

Beothuk The Beothuk ( or ; also spelled Beothuck) were a group of indigenous people who lived on the island of Newfoundland. Beginning around AD 1500, the Beothuk culture formed. This appeared to be the most recent cultural manifestation of peoples w ...

people some thousands of years ago. The first people to live in Newfoundland, the Maritime Archaic Indians arriving on the island about 5000 years ago and seem to have disappeared around 3200 years ago. In the summer of 1993, Dr. Paul Bonisteel, a resident of New Harbour, was walking in Anderson's Cove, located about a mile (1.6 km) northeast of Dildo Island between the communities of New Harbour and Dildo, when he discovered a large Maritime Archaic stone axe eroding from the bank above the beach. In the fall of 1995, the BTHC undertook an archaeological survey of Anderson's Cove and in 1996 some preliminary excavations were conducted. Fragments of stone tools and flakes were found scattered over a large area but no camp site was discovered. It may be that there is an Archaic camp site at Anderson's Cove and it has yet to be discovered. On the other hand, it is possible that the camp has been washed into the sea over the more than 3000 years since the site was abandoned. While none of the artifacts found at Anderson's Cove allow us to say when the site was first occupied, a Maritime Archaic spear point found in Collier Bay, roughly 6 miles (9.6 km) to the west of Anderson's Cove, dates to about 4500 years ago and it seems likely that Anderson's Cove was occupied around the same time.

Geography

New Harbour, Trinity Bay is in

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 ...

within Subdivision E of Division No. 1.

Demographics

As a designated place in the 2016 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 cultu ...

, New Harbour, Trinity Bay recorded a population of 491 living in 207 of its 236 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 501. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Government

New Harbour, Trinity Bay is a local service district (LSD) that is governed by a committee responsible for the provision of certain services to the community. The chair of the LSD committee is Cliff Pollett.

References