Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland and Labrador
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Port Hope Simpson, population 529 (2006), is a town located on the southeastern Labrador coast, 215 kilometres from the Quebec/Labrador border. It had its beginnings in the 1930s as a company town.
The town is serviced by Marine Atlantic, and has a ferry connection to a nearby town of William's Harbour. It also has a small regional airport serviced by Air Labrador. It has a friendly, independent people with a compelling history and a priority of sustainable economic development in a region of unspoilt wilderness. With the recent completion of the Trans-Labrador Highway through the region, Port Hope Simpson has since had an increase in tourist activity.
Shinneys Water Complex makes up 2,500 square kilometers of over 1,000 islands rising dramatically above sea level. These protected waters are ideal for all types of boating and the Alexis River is an excellent salmon river.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early settlement and founding
The earliest signs of habitation in the Port Hope Simpson area are marks dating from 1773 carved in a rock known as the “stamp from our past” when a few inhabitants were wintering at various places on Alexis and Gilbert Bays.
Job Notley and his family were the first permanent inhabitants in the locality living on an island at Light Tickle, to the east of the townsite and in 1884 a census recorded eight persons living at Alexis River. Lif was at a subsistence level based on fishing, trapping and hunting. Any timber cut from the dense coniferous woods in the area was limited to building log shacks, trestles, furniture, komatiks and firewood.
It was not until 1934 that Port Hope Simpson was founded as a logging town by John Osborn Williams, owner of the the Labrador Development Company, which set-up a pitwood cutting and exporting operations on the present townsite. He was supported in his venture by Sir John Hope Simpson, Commissioner of Natural Resources and Acting-Commissioner of Justice 1934-36. Simpson had agreed to Williams's offer that the settlement should be named after himself. This left the Commission and the British Government open to accusations of favouritism in their dealings with Williams. The government soon regretted the business relationship with Williams when it discovered that British taxpayers' money had been borrowed under false intentions.
[edit] Hard life in a company town
Williams did not build 400 houses for the loggers and their families as promised. Neither did he pay good wages. The people felt betrayed.[1] Williams kept his workers in poverty and in debt by the credit system he used at the Company store. Nonetheless, 1934-1940 saw six years of great economic activity as thousands of pit props were shipped from Port Hope Simpson as Britain and her allies prepared for the Second World War. There were still no roads in May 1941 - seven years after the company had first arrived. During this time some workers left for work elsewhere in Goose Bay and in [Newfoundland]].
Due to the low wages the remaining loggers went on strike, however, when they returned to work they were charged increased rents. People relied to some extent for fish caught locally, however by 1942, all the fishing families had left as well. Starvation faced the people. and then the company began to close down. There was a steady decline in government largesse as the people fell back once more on fishing and trapping to survive.[2]
[edit] Closure
Williams never relinquished legal control of the company to the Government's board of directors in St. John's, Newfoundland and he and his solicitors knew there was nothing the British Government, the Dominions Office nor the Commission of Government could do about it. He had misrepresented his own personal wealth to the government and the wages he paid his loggers had been much less than he claimed. Williams was also very economical with the truth about what development was really like on site. He had borrowed money at a time when the Commission of government was working to cut the Newfoundland debt and when his own country was preparing for war]. This was money that he was not in a rush to repay and which he used unscrupulously for other purposes.
A public enquiry into his company financial affairs in 1945. Williams managed to deceive Supreme Court Judge Brian Dunfield that he necessarily operated on a shoestring, implying that allowances should be made accordingly. To hide his earnings, the Company's pit props were purchased by one of his other companies - J. O. Williams and Company.
[edit] Intrigue
While this was going on, Williams was himself being cheated by his manager Keith Yonge. Williams sent his eldest son Eric to Port Hope Simpson to report on affairs in the town. The young man never returned. He died in a reported house fire with his infant daughter Erica.[3]
At this point an alleged cover-up about the deaths was put in place beginning with the appointment of Claude Fraser, Simpson's loyal secretary of Natural Resources, as Government Director of the company on the same day as the deaths occurred. In August 2002 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, under the Department of Justice, decided to open an investigation about whether or not foul play had occurred.
Since no satisfactory explanation for what happened has yet been found their file remains open.
[edit] Port Hope Simpson today
This crucible of political, economic and social factors has been influential in the development of the town. Different characters, government officials and policies, the availability of work and how well its people have adapted to changing economic circumstances have combined together to explain the nature of its growth. When the Labrador Development Company left in 1948 leaving confusion, bitterness and a hoary, wild west reputation in its wake, paid work in the woods left with it until Bowater arrived 14 years later.
New economic activity took place between 1962 and 1968 as Bowater picked-up the thread laid down by Williams, Simpson and the Labrador Development Company. More trees were felled for their pulp and paper mills at Corner Brook, and in Kent, England. Bowater brought benefits of regular paid employment (though seasonal), twenty miles of forest roads and the government contributed by sharing the cost of building a new wharf. But by 1970, apart from the post office, the general store and the two schools there was no year-round paid employment.
From 1970 to 1992 cod and salmon fishing was the economic mainstay of the area but unemployment prevailed most of the year. In 1992 the cod fishery was closed down altogether. However, many local fishermen made a relatively easy transition into crab, shrimp and scallop fishing.
In 1996, Port Hope Simpson was granted the town status. A manufacuring industry has developed by diversification into boat-building. The construction works of the Trans-Labrador Highway and the new Port Hope Simpson bridge and the airport have done much to increase accessibility. Improved accessibility has been crucial in bringing visitors to the town.
[edit] Population change
- 1945: 352 (Source: Southeastern Aurora Development Corporation);
- 1951: 252 (S.A.D.C.);
- 1965: 489 (S.A.D.C.); Mid 1980s: approximately 650 (S.A.D.C.);
- 1992: approximately 530 (S.A.D.C.);
- 1996: 577 (Source: Statistics Canada);
- 2001: 509 (S.C.)
- 2002: 535 (S.A.D.C.)
- 2006: 529 (S. C.)
[edit] Notes
- ^ R.C.M.P. investigation report, Serious Crimes Unit, Gander, Newfoundland 2004
- ^ Newfoundland Rangers’ reports from 30.09.40-09.03.43, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's
- ^ The Evening Telegram, 3 February 1940, St. John's, Newfoundland
[edit] References
- Canadian Statistics
- Our Labrador...Yours to Explore, Smart Labrador and Combined Councils of Labrador 1995;
- Port Hope Simpson history of development with photographs Llewelyn Pritchard 2004;
- Port Hope Simpson two unsolved deaths, Llewelyn Pritchard 2004;
- Southeastern Aurora Development Corporation 2002;
- Tombstone - a history of development,inc. list of sources on which this article is based, Llewelyn Pritchard 2002;
[edit] External links
