First a short bit of history (very short). When Newfoundland became a province of Canada in 1949 the new government took a long look at the more than 1200 isolated villages nestled in the nooks and crannies of the rugged coastline of "the Rock". Faced with the rising costs of providing services to these tiny hamlets - most of which were accessible only by boat - the provincial government and then, later, the federal government offered money to the residents to be relocated to "growth centres" nearby. Entire populations were moved including, in some cases, their houses. But many outports remain as ghost towns now; dilapidated and rotting. ******************************************************************************* I rember watching a PBS "reality show" a few years ago where the 21st century participants had to live on one of these outposts, recreating life in the 19th century, exactly, with the exception of the film crews, like was done then. Two families were fishermen, neither had any boat experience or fishing experience. They tried to catch enough, salt the catch, farm the rocky soil enough so that in the end, they could sell it for enough money to buy supplies to eek out a livng over the winter until they could fish again.. It was a very hard subsistance life. Mike San Rafael, california *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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