Burin and St. Lawrence, Newfoundland

We stayed at Golden Sands RV Resort in Winterland, Newfoundland from August 19 to 22, 2023.  

The weather was not ideal on Sunday, August 20, so we decided to take a drive down through the town of Burin, after which the Burin Peninsula, where we are, was named.  One of the attractions in Burin is the Tidal Wave Memorial, which is located east of the town on highway 221:

The Tidal Wave Memorial is a memorial for the victims of a tsunami that hit the southwest coast of Newfoundland in 1929. It is considered one of the most beautiful monuments on the Burin Peninsula and holds deep historical value to the region. The devastating tsunami which shook the area occurred in November 1929 when a portion of the ocean floor shifted on the Grand Banks east of Newfoundland, causing a tidal wave. The four pillars of the monument are popularly believed to represent a human hand rising above the water and asking for help.  I also appears to represent the waves of the ocean.

From the Tidal Wave Memorial, we continued out highway 221 toward the Tides Cove Point Lighthouse, which was established in 1915.  While closed to the public, the light was accessible by road and we could walk up to view it:

The trip to and from the lighthouse was uneventful, other than some encounters with unexpected ungulates.  The first hooved wooly one we met was this sheep, who was as surprised to see us as we were to see her/him:

Closer to the lighthouse, though, these Three Stooges spotted us and proceeded to tail us to the lighthouse, obviously thinking that, as unsuspecting tourists, we would be pleased to pay tips to them for providing escort services:

That was about it for the Sunday trip. The day was rainy and we enjoyed views of some typically Newfie outport villages, but those experiences were more for us to relish because they will seem to you much like the others we've shared.

Monday, August 21, was another thing.  We drove south to St. Lawrence, where we first visited the Miners Memorial Museum.  It tells the stories of the individuals who worked in the local fluorospar mine, which has been active since 1933.  In 1931, an American entrepreneur named Walter Seibert offered the people some hope when he visited the town to inspect the fluorspar deposits he had purchased from St. John's businessman in 1929. Fluorspar is a non-metallic ore which, depending on the proportion of its components, is used in the manufacture of such things as aluminum, glass, and the refrigerant freon. At the time of its discovery, the St. Lawrence deposit was described as the largest in North America.

The miners of St. Lawrence have another claim to fame, however, which is their valiant, life-risking efforts to safe shipwrecked sailors in nearby Chambers Cove.

The USS Truxtun headed in convoy for Argentia, Newfoundland in February 1942, escorting the USS Pollux, a supply ship, along with a second escort, the USS Wilkes. Truxtun ran aground in a howling gale between the outport communities of Lawn and St. Lawrence, near Chambers Cove. Under extremely violent and freezing sea conditions she broke up almost immediately after grounding and, in spite of the heroic efforts of miners from the local Iron Springs Mine, lost 110 members of her crew. Pollux was also wrecked with 93 fatalities.  The Wilkes, which also grounded, was able to free itself and make way with no fatalities.

A painting in the museum memorializes the scene in Chambers Cove, where locals worked to save the sailors by lowering ropes down the steep cliffs to the narrow beaches and rocks below:

After touring the museum, we drove out to Chambers Cove, where we hiked to the cove from near the Iron Springs Mine, where U.S. sailor Ed Bergeron arrived, cold and exhausted after climbing the cliffs of Chambers Cove and trekking 2 miles through the wind, ice and snow, to ask the miners for help.  We stood at the very point where the painting portrayed the desperate lifesaving efforts:

The trail to Chambers Cove has been named the Bergeron Trail, after the sailor who saved his shipmates.

Chambers Cove boasts a lighthouse, at Middle Head, and we snapped a photo of it as we hiked.

Our trail took us past beautiful cobblestone and gravel beaches and barachois:

The entire coastline between St. Lawrence and Chambers Cove is rugged and awe-inspiring:

What is a Newfie hiking trail without an impressive staircase?  This trail was no different.  In the photo below, the structure by the staircase is a fishing shack that was standing in February 1942 when Ed Bergeron and one of his shipmates reached the clifftops.  They took shelter in it briefly before Bergeron struggled on to the mine to get help.

The fishing shack is located on a beautiful little brook which, for nearly two centuries, has been occupied by local fishing families, where they farmed, reared their children, raised livestock and planted their vegetable gardens.  The brook empties into Placentia Bay at a gorgeous small beach:

Here is a view upstream along the brook, with the fishing shack to the left.  Its doorway was boarded over because the sailors on the Truxtun tore its door off to use as a litter to carry injured sailors up from the Chambers Cove beach.  As in many other places in Newfoundland, history remains immediate here because there is little inclination to tear it down or replace it.

Standing at the top of the cliffs above Chambers Cove at the spot where the sailors undoubtedly made their climb, we were shaken by the rugged and deadly nature of the rocks and cliffs where the ship broke up:

At the top of the trail, above the cove, sits a memorial to the U.S. seamen who died on that day in February 1942.  The Newfoundlanders feel a deep connection to the United States, and always seem to have been rescuing us from disaster in and around their country.

On our way back from Chambers Cove, we stopped at another beach to hunt for sea glass, and Kathy added yet more to her very large sea glass collection!