GO WITH THE FLOE
Newfoundland one of a kind
ST. JOHN’S, N.L The island of Newfoundland is a global tourism draw not just for spectacular seaside vistas and colourful outports, but for place names that jump off the map.
Heart’s Content, Devil Head, Happy Adventure, Cupids, Conception Bay, Blow Me Down. And, yes, Dildo. “Newfoundland has so many marvellous, eccentric names,” said Lorna Higdon-Norrie, owner of Reid’s Room House in Dildo, a pretty town of about 1,200 people on the shore of Trinity Bay South. “It’s just one of them.”
Fact, folklore and history blur when it comes to many of the island’s most curious monikers. Dildo is no different.
The name may descend from the earliest European explorers and mappers who used it for nearby Dildo Island at least as early as 1711. Perhaps they thought it resembled the shape of a less X-rated dildo, the name used for round pegs that lock oars in place on a dory.
Other theories include that it comes from the Italian word “diletto” meaning delight, or from the name of a Spanish sailor who travelled the area.
Locals who’ve refused to change the name may roll their eyes as visitors snap photos next to the town sign. But they take great pride in how quickly those guests move on to its other attractions, said Higdon-Norrie.
Archeological sites in the region earned it special designation from the province. The unspoiled coastline features generations of settlement patterns and wildlife abounds.
“I dwell on the fact that, if you’re lucky, you can see whales from the front deck,” said Higdon-Norrie.
There are good, strange and sometimes dark stories behind many place names.
Happy Adventure is a fishing outport of about 220 people near Terra Nova National Park. Founded in 1710, it bills itself as “Newfoundland’s most peaceful community.” Local folklore, however, suggests its pleasing name may have come from the vessel, The Happy Adventure, of pirate Peter Easton who plied the waters off Newfoundland in the 1600s.
Another theory, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website, is it derives from George Holbrook, a British surveyor and mapper who sought shelter from a storm in a nearby cove in 1817. Various sources say he called it a “Happy Adventure.”
Heart’s Content on the east coast of Trinity Bay is famous as the landing site in 1866 of the first telegraph cable linking North America and Europe. Its name is traced to the writings of the earliest settlers, including English merchant John Guy, who led efforts to colonize Newfoundland and sailed into Trinity Bay in 1612.
Guy had in 1610 helped found the first English community in present-day Canada at Cuper’s Cove, now affectionately known as Cupids.
And then there’s Blow Me Down, a provincial park northwest of Corner Brook, N.L.
Visitors may also notice an array of wicked names on the Newfoundland map. They include the Devil’s Dressing Table, Devil’s Dining Table, Devil’s Rock and Devil’s Cove. There’s also the Devil’s Staircase, a rock formation at Cape Broyle.
“I’m always fascinated with names that have kind of a supernatural component,” said Dale Jarvis, a folklorist and author based in St. John’s. That’s where you’ll find Gibbet Hill and Dead Man’s Pond heading up Signal Hill.
A gibbet was a steel cage in which the corpses of murderers, pirates and other notorious criminals were displayed after hanging as a public warning, Jarvis said. There’s a lack of historical confirmation, but stories persist that bodies were removed from the cages on Gibbet Hill, placed in barrels, then rolled down the hill into Dead Man’s Pond, he said.