Main Brook
The Salmon River runs through Main Brook
Main Brook is located along the inner shores of Hare Bay, far from the cod fishing grounds that first drew Europeans to the area. The attraction of the site lay in its proximity to timber stands and an outstanding salmon river. Long before settlement, European fishing ships detoured to the mouth of the Salmon River, originally the Ariege River, to net salmon and cut timber for ship repair, construction of wharves and fishing stages. As settlement developed in northern Newfoundland, some families moved seasonally to inner harbours such as Main Brook to be nearer timber stands and hunting grounds. They were also out of reach of the worst winter storms from the ocean.
Permanent settlement of Main Brook did not take place until the 1920s when a few families set up saw mills to cut and market lumber. A commercial salmon fishery opened in the 1930s, giving settlers another source of income. Bit by bit churches, a school and shops were built. Much greater change came when the international pulpwood company Bowaters bought a small existing pulp company and thousands of acres of forest surrounding Main Brook. They built a depot for transport ships and company dormatories for temporary workers. Main Brook became a company town and prospered in the years surrounding World War II. It boomed in the 1960s, but began to decline 10 years later when Bowaters consolidated and stopped cutting in the area.
Recently, the last buildings of the Bowaters Depot were torn down, leaving only stories of the logging life behind. It retrospect, Main Brooks historic significance may be its rich natural resources that attracted humans over the centuries to harvest its salmon, timber, fur-bearing animals, and migrating birds while being protected in sheltered coves from the treacherous winter weather of the outer coast. In a nod to this natural richness, the provincial government has declared some of the islands in Hare Bay to be a Ecological Reserve.
Main Brook Photos : ( Click each for full size )
Hunting caribou - 19th century newspaper illustration
Main Brook : Dr. Grenfell Adrift on an Ice Pan
Main Brook is located along the traditional dog team travel route used by the Grenfell doctors to visit outports on the south of St. Anthony. In one of Dr Wilfred Grenfell’s most famous books, he tells the story about how, in late April, 1906, he rushed by dog team from St. Anthony to get to a sick patient 60 miles away on the shores of Hare Bay. To save time he attempted to cross the frozen bay, but at that season the ice was unsettled, often slush interspersed with harder ice pans. As he crossed Hare Bay, he and his dog team became stranded on a precariously small ice pan drifting toward the open ocean. After moving his team through the slush to the temporary safety of larger pan, he realized that to survive the cold and wet he would have to kill several of his dogs and use their skins for warmth. In his book he describes the difficulty of parting with any of his loyal dogs; but in the end he was forced to kill several. By the second day, in spite of making a flag and waving it towards shore, he was losing hope of rescue. Luck was on his side when local fisherman George Davis saw the stranded doctor in great danger floating farther and farther from shore. The rescuers Davis recruited were unable to launch a craft until the next morning but then made a difficult but successful rescue of Dr. Grenfell.
Visitors to the Grenfell House Museum in St. Anthony can see a memorial plaque that Dr. Grenfell made in honour of his sacrificed dogs. It reads, To the Memory of Three Noble Dogs. Moody. Watch. Spy. Whose lives were given for mine on the ice. April 21st, 1906.
Grenfell’s book, Adrift on an Ice Pan, is still in print today and has recently been made into an audio recording.
Photos : ( Click each for full size )
Before the arrival of snowmobiles, most households had sled dogs for transportation.