The welcome sign as you got off the ferry at Suly Ann Cove notifies the traveler in the last days that services would be discontinued as a result of the resettlement of the community of Little Bay Islands. Interestingly the island is called Little Bay Island; the community Little Bay Islands!
At the end of the second day of our kayak camp trip we walked the couple of kilometers from our campsite to the community after setting up tents and cooking supper. My formative years were in Middle Cove, six miles on the outskirts of St. John's. It was country living and it was called freedom. I knew I was going to find the same thing as I walked down the hill into the community.
One of the outstanding houses on LBI. This was the house owned by Sidney and Ethel Wiseman and where they raised six children. Ethel Wellon arrived in Little Bay Islands to teach and married a son of the family she boarded with. Between 1923 and 1931 she brought six children into the world. In those times everyone had a role to play in survival. The children had chores to do but also a lot of freedom. There were no playstations and other modern distractions then but good wholesome outdoor adventures such as ...
... skipping stones on still waters such as we had on our walk, catching connors off of the wharf and maybe building bough houses in the woods. The last house built is the one center left owned by Mike Parsons and Georgina, the only two remaining residents who live there year round.
But while this is looked an idyllic place in sunshine while we were here, there were limitations to living in such remote community whose only connection to the modern world is a ferry boat ride. People of bygone generations made a good living off of the sea; LBI was a prosperous community in its day. Sadly as society "advanced" young people were lured away after graduating from high school to get higher education or training in trades. They left and never returned. People got older and fewer children were born. That's the death knell of remote communities for children are the life blood of a community, they give it longevity. And so, on 3 December 2019 the community reached its inevitable end. I call that a shame for such a beautiful place.
LBI has one claim to fame as I found out as I read this plaque. Helena Strong of Little Bay Islands met and subsequently married the future Prime Minister Richard Squires. Future Prime Minister because in those days Newfoundland was an independent dominion, the same standing as Canada.
This was the house of the father James Strong, head of the fish exporting company of James Strong Limited.
A round of beer tasting and ranking finished a large day. The plan for the next day was a circumnavigation of Little Bay Island, the island with a visit to the harbour of Little Bay Islands, the community.
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