The Town of Placentia—Placentia is
approximately 78 miles south of St. John's and is the closest town to Argentia,
approximately 3 miles. When the Naval
Base was active, it was a self-sufficient base in almost everything. Today, Placentia has a modern Sobey's
Supermarket, fuel stations, churches, schools including a junior college
campus, an RCMP post, post office, restaurants, liquor store, Museum, Cultural
Centre, several hotels and B&Bs and a giant new drawbridge crossing the
Placentia Gut that is supposed to open later in 2015, replacing the 54 year old current drawbridge that is suffering
major mechanical problems.
Placentia History
Placentia history goes back to the Basque seasonal fishermen of the early 1500s! Placentia, then called Plaisance by the French, was the first capital of Newfoundland in 1655. The French built a succession of 3 bigger and better forts to defend Plaisance. After many battles with the English, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 required the French to leave all their settlements in Placentia Bay and all of Newfoundland and relocate to Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The English took over and Newfoundland ultimately became a Dominion of England and the first possession of the United Kingdom. In the 18th Century, Placentia rivaled St. John's in importance and had a population of 2000, which was ¼ of Newfoundland's total population at that time. That all changed in the 19th century when St. John's became the largest and most important city but Placentia continued to be an important regional center. Its post office was established in 1851. Fishing was the economic base here for much of its history.
Placentia history goes back to the Basque seasonal fishermen of the early 1500s! Placentia, then called Plaisance by the French, was the first capital of Newfoundland in 1655. The French built a succession of 3 bigger and better forts to defend Plaisance. After many battles with the English, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 required the French to leave all their settlements in Placentia Bay and all of Newfoundland and relocate to Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The English took over and Newfoundland ultimately became a Dominion of England and the first possession of the United Kingdom. In the 18th Century, Placentia rivaled St. John's in importance and had a population of 2000, which was ¼ of Newfoundland's total population at that time. That all changed in the 19th century when St. John's became the largest and most important city but Placentia continued to be an important regional center. Its post office was established in 1851. Fishing was the economic base here for much of its history.
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| Across the arm are sheer rocks and old fishing stages |
Sadly with the demise of the American base in 1994,
Placentia's economy went into depression and the population has declined
annually; in the 2006 census, only 3900 people remained. It's called the “2nd fastest
shrinking town in Canada.” It's hoped
that the ongoing conversion of the former base into an active port and
industrial park will spark a new renaissance for Placentia!
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| A steel seawall is built on the shore so the town doesn't flood |
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| Placentia marina with town on background |
The Placentia Lift Bridge—this 300' long span
crosses the “Placentia Gut” over the Northeast and Southeast arms of Placentia
Bay.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers built a
pontoon bridge here in the early 1940s but the swift tidal currents of 4-5
knots that change direction every 8-1/2 hours and heavy winter ice soon
destroyed it. The current bridge was
built in 1961 replacing a ferry. The
100' center span raises to a clearance of 70' for the passage of large vessels,
but in the recent past, is frequently sticking while lifting the center span,
disabling the bridge for hours, days or
more. This bridge is currently
being replaced by an impressive very heavy duty lift bridge that is supposed to
open sometime in 2015 at a cost of over $40 million Canadian dollars!
Castle Hill National Historic Site—the premier
tourist site in Placentia is Castle Hill NHS, which contains a great museum
showing the Basque, French and English layers of history in dioramas and
artifacts. The Basque fishermen exhibits
are extremely interesting.
Just up
Castle Hill are the extensive remains of 3 French forts: Fort Plaisance (1662),
Fort Saint-Louis (1691) and Fort Royal (1693) and the 2 British forts: Fort
Frederick (1720) and New Fort built over
Fort Saint-Louis in 1740.
Our female interpreter was really excellent and brought the forts to life after the arduous climb up Castle Hill The view from the high hill overlooking Placentia and the Bay is amazing as you'll see in the photographs. After many years of archeological exploration, Castle Hill was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1968.
Our female interpreter was really excellent and brought the forts to life after the arduous climb up Castle Hill The view from the high hill overlooking Placentia and the Bay is amazing as you'll see in the photographs. After many years of archeological exploration, Castle Hill was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1968.
O'Reilly House Museum—Placentia--this attractive Queen Anne Victorian house was built in 1902 for the town magistrate, William O'Reilly, who served the town from 1897-1923. It served as the home for future magistrates after his death until it was eventually restored by the Placentia Area Historical Society and opened as a museum in 1989. It contains the upscale home furnishings of the O'Reilly family downstairs with the upstairs rooms covering Placentia history from the Basque room, the Argentia Naval Base room, French and English occupation eras and the Resettlement scheme of the 1950s to 1970s where small populations of people on islands or tiny fishing outports were encouraged and paid by the Newfoundland Government to move to larger population towns so government services could be rendered more efficiently and at lower cost. This program was mostly very unpopular! Our museum guide here was the President of the Historical Society who gave us an excellent introduction to the Placentia area.
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church—Placentia--beginning with the Basque era in the 1500s with the French following for the next two hundred years, Catholicism has been a strong religion in Placentia. The first Roman Catholic church was built in Plaisance in 1689 by the Bishop of Quebec.
In 1712, the English
took over and established the Anglican religion but in 1784, religious freedom
was restored and another Catholic church called Our Lady of the Angels was
built in 1786. The current church, called
Sacred Heart Parish, which dominates the heart of Placentia with its large
footprint and tall steeple was completed in 1889 and has been renovated and
expanded several times. In 2011, the
parishioners voted to return to the historic name of Our Lady of the Angels
Roman Catholic Parish.
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| Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church and Convent----St.Luke's Anglican Church (right bottom) |
The inside is beautiful but unusual with the pews placed in
an overall V-shape with many donated religious-themed stained glass
windows. The handsome 1864 stone
architecture of Our Lady of the Angels convent, built for the Presentation
Sisters, still stands to the right of the church, but is no longer in use.
Cape St. Marys Ecological Reserve—this Reserve,
established in 1983, is a 45 mile drive from Argentia on rough roads passing
through 4 small fishing villages but it is so worth the trip! It is a paradise for birders and is known as
the most accessible seabird rookery in North America! Cape St. Mary's is the extreme southwest end
of the Avalon Peninsula. The highlight
here is reached by hiking about 3/4 mile out on a very scenic trail across a
barren plateau to the 300' high sandstone sea stack called Bird Rock, where in
summer you can view the second largest Northern Gannet breeding ground in North
America with an estimated 24,000
gannets!
Other birds seen are up to 20,000 black legged kittiwakes, 20,000 common murres, 200 thick billed murres and hundreds of pairs of razorbill and about 60 pair of black guillemot. Double crested and great cormorants and some gulls also nest here in much smaller numbers. These birds spend the majority of their lives out in the open ocean where they feed on schools of fish like herring by diving straight down into the school. The nesting season here is April—June.
Other birds seen are up to 20,000 black legged kittiwakes, 20,000 common murres, 200 thick billed murres and hundreds of pairs of razorbill and about 60 pair of black guillemot. Double crested and great cormorants and some gulls also nest here in much smaller numbers. These birds spend the majority of their lives out in the open ocean where they feed on schools of fish like herring by diving straight down into the school. The nesting season here is April—June.
In winter, over 20,000 scoters, oldsquaw, harlequin,
dovekies, thick billed murres and kittiwakes use the Reserve's waters. On your hike out during nesting season,
you'll surely see some number of domestic sheep grazing the meadows next to the
trail.
The sheep are definitely not
bothered by passing humans but you need to watch your step due to the quantity
of fresh sheep excrement on the trail!
The other caution here is Cape St. Mary's has fog approximately 200 days
a year and the trail comes close to cliff edges in several places and the edges
are unfenced!
You're able to observe the huge colonies of birds from 30-50
feet away and really see their elaborate mating displays when the pair tilt
their necks and head straight up and gently touch bills! Nesting construction, feeding and
interactions between the birds is also very interesting. Gannets usually remain paired for life. The female lays a single egg in a nest of
grasses or seaweed and incubates it for 6-8 weeks. The chick fledges in about 12 weeks and can
fly south with its parents who will continue feeding it for another 8-9
months. Gannets have a 7' wingspan and
can glide for hours over the ocean searching for food.
The provincial website NewfoundlandLabrador.com says this
about the Reserve-- “This site is overflowing with perching, diving and scrambling
birds from edge to edge—melding together into an awesome moving, breathing
spectacle of colour and sound!” The
Interpretive Center, open May to October, has fascinating displays of the life
histories of the different bird species found here and the naturalists are a
great source of information. Naturalists
also lead tours and are available for questions near Bird Rock. Admission is free too! We spent several hours out at Bird Rock
enjoying the spectacle and observing bird behavior. The photographs show how awesome it really is
at Cape St. Mary's!
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| Northern Gannet Behavior |
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| Murre colonies and nesting Kittiwakes |
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| Razorbills |
The Cape St. Mary's Lighthouse that went into operation in 1860 is just across from the Reserve's Visitor Centre parking lot. The lighthouse has received multiple renovations which is a testament to its treacherous location on a very windy headland with rough seas.
Placentia Cultural Centre & Caravan Final Banquet & Screech-In—the Placentia Cultural Centre opened in 2009 and is downtown on the Town Square next to City Hall and across from the Our Lady of the Angels RC Church. It's a very modern good-looking long building with a large auditorium inside for large community and civic events, ceremonies and even entertainment. The large foyer contains wall space for art shows. We came here for our Caravan Final Banquet on the evening of June 17 and the art show hanging then contained many interesting paintings of the Placentia area by local artists. The dinner, made by our leaders and a few volunteers from the group, was very good with a big platter of vegetables along with fish, crab, mussels and shrimp.
The highlight after dinner was a Newfoundland tradition of
the “Screech-In.” At Karen Churchill's
Kitchen Party in Twillingate, we experienced a “Screech-In” so we knew what to
expect at our leader's version. He
didn't wear the traditional sou'wester foul weather gear nor did we get sou'wester hats for the occasion as is
customary. The ceremony was performed
for each couple separately with the reading of a proclamation followed by the
traditional question “Is ye an Honorary Newfoundlander?” You answer “ 'deed I is, me old cock and long
may your big jib draw” spoken at top speed!
You must make a speech on the leader's chosen subject or recite a
poem! Then you drink a jigger of 40%
alcohol rum and kiss an ugly fish that is presented to you—frozen cod in this
case! If you survive the above tests,
you are awarded your Honorary Newfoundlander certificate with great applause
from the audience! This all occurred
after a few glasses of wine or beer at dinner to lubricate you! It was fun though and a good meal!
But it wasn't the end—the caravan still had 2 more days to go before we got on the Marine Atlantic ferry back to Nova Scotia! So we got to do a little more exploring!
But it wasn't the end—the caravan still had 2 more days to go before we got on the Marine Atlantic ferry back to Nova Scotia! So we got to do a little more exploring!
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