Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Methegreat (talk | contribs) at 16:58, 19 October 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fogo Island, the largest of Newfoundland's offshore islands, is off the Northeast Coast of Newfoundland. The Island is about 25 km long and 14 km wide. The island consists of eleven communities and has a population of about 5,000 people.

Because the original settlement took place in the 18th Century and the area remained isolated well into the twentieth century, the descendants of the first inhabitants retained traces of their Elizabethan dialect which can be heard on the Island today. The Island has many ancient folk customs brought from england that are disappearing.

Fogo Island was once called Y del Fogo, meaning Isle of Fire. There are three theories for the name:

•Many huge accidental or natural forest fires destroyed the dense forests of the Northern part of the Island.

•Europeans continually saw the burning fires of the Beothuks, when they were visiting from across the Atlantic.

•The settlers deliberately burned the forests to clear land for cultivation, but ironically lost the soil to spring washouts.

The eleven communities of Fogo Island are:

•Stag Harbour

•Little Seldom

•Seldom

•Island Harbour

•Deep Bay

•Fogo Island Central

•Fogo

•Shoal Bay

•Barr'd Islands

•Joe Batt's Arm

•Tilting

• v
• t
• e

• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Islands of Canada