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L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park

Christopher Columbus is credited for discovering North America when he came here in 1492, but he certainly wasn’t the man who discovered it. As I learned in public school,

around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson, son of the adventurer Erik the Red, sailed west. He was probably not the first to make this trip, but he is recorded as finding a land where nice grapes hung thickly on vines. The name Vine Land stuck.

Viking Norsemen arrived on a lonely outpost in the northern part of Newfoundland where they established a small settlement. Pat Sutherland with the Canadian Museum of Civilization, has done extensive research that seems to show the Vikings also left artefacts on Nunavut, Baffin Island, and Labrador.

They may also have visited south to Nova Scotia and surrounding areas. Although the climate was warmer 1000 years ago, it may not have been warm enough farther north to have produced the vines of grapes that caused Leif Eriksson to name the land Vine Land. These likely were found to the south.

The L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park is worth the long drive to

get there. On Newfoundland’s west coast you head north past Gros Morne National Park almost to the very tip of a lonely peninsula. Route 430 follows the seacoast with spectacular views across to mainland Labrador. At Eddies Cove it strikes inland across the peninsula to Saint Anthony. Although you turn north before reaching this fishing village dating back to the 1500’s, you should take time to visit this town which is a favourite place for whale watching.

The highway winds through barren rock sparsely covered with vegetation in places. In other places there are steep hills and lots of short evergreen trees. It’s interesting to see small gardens along the road, tended by people from town who have managed to find a pocket of soil large enough, and fertile enough to grow their vegetables.

As you walk into the L’Anse aux Meadows NHS you are struck by the emptiness of the area. Yet in the midst of wind swept isolation you see several large humps that upon closer inspection reveal themselves as structures built with sod walls with roofs layered with sod and grass. You enter to find a fire pit in the centre to remove the chill. Smoke escaped through the roof vents and probably caused a lot of stinging eyes and smoky lungs because smoke doesn’t always obey any rules, and might not all head for the upper vents.

On the walls are hung furs, and nets, and finely woven garments. It’s obvious this settlement has been built for the long stay. Wooden bunks are built along the walls and covered with comfortable furs to sleep upon. Hung on pegs in the walls you will see an assortment of axes, hooks, and other devices made from iron. There is even an old loom for making cloth.

Outside you will likely find a couple of re-enactor Norsemen working in a fire pit. Here they will place dry wood, and cover it with

bog iron, close it over and let it burn to smelt the iron from the raw bog iron. This location is the first example of smelting in North America, and far ahead of the Europeans that Columbus brought to the shores of southern North America. The production of iron meant they could make nails, and other simple tools.

Travelling anywhere in Newfoundland will take you through miles of forests, lakes and mountain scenery. It’s extra special when you have the opportunity to visit a place like L’Anse aux Meadows.

Happy RVing !

For more than four decades James Stoness has travelled the roads of North America, photographing and writing about what he has seen. His travel articles and beautiful pictures have been published in several magazines and newspapers. He is also the author of five western novels. Visit his website at: www.stonesstravelguides.com

On the Trail of the Giant Calderas

Before it was something for humans to worry about , the North American Continent was wracked by huge volcanic eruptions the like of which humans have never seen. Those who travel to Yellowstone National Park observe the eroded remnants of these calamitous explosions which form the Yellowstone Caldera.

Yellowstone NP is the youngest of a string of calderas stretching from Oregon to Wyoming. One theory is that about 17 million years ago a meteor plunged through the earth’s crust into the underlying mantle which released the pressure below and a massive eruption followed.

The question is then, how come there is a caldera at

Yellowstone in Wyoming, when the hotspot was created in Oregon? Well,the answer is a bit confusing. The hotspot never moved. It’s still where it was created 17 million years ago. Instead Yellowstone NP is now sitting over the hotspot because the crust of Central North America is slipping southwest at about 2” each year, so 17 million years later, Wyoming is sitting where the old Oregon would have been.

There are other theories, but I like this one. Now, on the crustal journey southwest as the crust moved across the hotspot the eruptions would cease for a time, and then pop up sort of like a cutting torch punching through steel, and then there would be another huge eruption and another caldera. There is a chain of the calderas running northeast across the country from Oregon to Wyoming.

These eruptions are so severe because the eruption releases rhyolite magma. Rhyolite

magma has the ability to absorb huge quantities of water which remain absorbed so long as the pressure is kept on the top. Release the pressure by cutting through the crust and the steam expands in a massive explosion carrying magma and anything else in the way to the surface. Great clouds of hot rock move across the landscape in great pyroclastic flows that weld together forming tremendous cliffs of soft rock.

When you travel in Yellowstone NP some of the great cliffs are the result of these cooling pyroclastic flows. If you try to follow the trail of the calderas you will find it difficult to see much. Erosion has done its work and many of the old calderas are flattened. Highways pass right through the Rexburg Caldera but you’d not know it was there.

Your drive is made interesting by secondary eruptions that have occurred across these plains and have spewed out a very liquid black basalt lava which has created

very interesting lava beds, and nearby there may be cinder cones from which the lava often flowed. Craters of the Moon National Monument has preserved many of these lava flows and has good examples of cinder cones.

Whether at Yellowstone National Park, or areas farther west you will find interesting scenery, and great camping. Take some time and explore.

You can find more information and maps showing some of these features in my scenic tours book, “The Lure of Pine and Sage”, which is available as a download from my website, www.stonesstravelguides.com

Explore Labrador’s Battle Harbour

Some communities wither and disappear when their principal industry goes awry. Battle Harbour is located on a small island on the east coast of Labrador. It’s position on the ocean gave access to the rich cod fishing grounds and in the mid 1700’s Slade & Co. of England set up a fish station on the island. Homes grew, school and church and gardens followed. This permanent station meant that fishermen did not have to make the long trips to England after the season was over.

In the 1950’s their prosperity began to wane because of low prices for fish and decreasing fish stocks meant by the 1970’s that it was over. Men left to work at Goose Bay, and many other places and the general decline of the buildings began. The beautiful wooden Anglican church had slid to one side, and tilted, a collapsing memory of people’s hopes. Sheds buckled, and homes began to fail.
In 1990 the Battle Harbour Historic Trust company was formed to preserve the settlement before it was gone. This ghost town is well worth the effort it takes to get to see it. Certainly others have felt the same. The site is now a Historic District and National Historic Site of Canada.
To visit, arrive at St. Mary’s Harbour and hop on the ferry, the MV Iceberg Hunter which is operated by Jones Charters and Tours.

You will enjoy this last leg of the journey, especially if you haven’t navigated the shores of Labrador. The nearby shores of St. Lewis Strait still show the ravages of the glacier and their scant vegetation is stark evidence of the difficulty that plants have in establishing themselves in cold climates. Along the way you see abundant sea birds, and there is the possibility of whale sightings.

Your first view of Battle Harbour from the ferry reveals distant buildings perched on a rugged coast that make you wonder how the settlement survived for over 200 years. It looks so barren, yet strangely inviting. As you glide into the dock you know that there is going to be a lot to see. The waterfront is crammed with buildings, many of them part of the original buildings run by the companies. This area would have been a beehive of activity. Hundreds of boats would have been unloading supplies, off loading fish for processing, or loading fish ready for England. Up on the shore by the buildings would have been the largest flake on the coast. This is a platform made of wooden poles where each family placed their cleaned and salted fish for drying. It wasn’t as easy as placing them on the flake and coming back in a few days when they might be dried. To avoid spoilage they had to pick them up every night to keep off the dew, and pick them up if the weather threatened rain.
At one time more than 200 people had permanent homes here on the island and they made the place self sufficient in many ways. Barrel makers created the barrels needed for storage. Others fixed the nets, and carpenters did the many chores needed to build and maintain the buildings. During the fishing season the population could rise to 1000 or more. The Company bought the fish from the fishermen, who then purchased supplies from the Company. It’s unlikely that the fishermen ever got out of their debt to the Company. The words of Ernie Ford’s song, “I owe my soul to the company store,” could apply here as well.
One of the buildings visited is the Salt Store where ships unloaded salt by the ton and it was wheeled in wooden carts that could be dumped on the floor of the Salt Store and then shovelled into place. The building held 700 tons of salt and the salt soaking into the wood has helped preserve the building. Salt was delivered to small places along the coast, as well as being used on site. This museum has a variety of gadgets, scales, big ropes, and some of the 500 artefacts found in the settlement.
The Church of St. James the Apostle was built in 1852. It was in bad shape when the restorers turned their attention to it. Now it’s one of the prettiest and oldest of the wooden churches in Labrador.

Many of the beautiful buildings you see perched on the rocky slopes are available for rent. You can take a room for the night, and book a meeting room upstairs in the Salmon Store. Imagine staying in one of these homes with their polished wooden floors, comfortable chairs, and a cosy heat coming from the woodstove in the kitchen or the heater in the parlour. Out across the bay you might see a boat’s wake reflecting the setting sun. Later you hike up the wooden stairs to snooze down in a lovely antique bed. Now that’s comfort for anyone, and a lot of nostalgia for some. For breakfast you can cook in the kitchen or go down to the dining hall for a fantastic home cooked meal, some cooked in the traditional way.

Take the trail up over the hill. Along the path you may see the famous orange-yellow cloudberry or bakeapple. This is one berry that is raved about across the province and is made into jams and other preserves that command a quality price. You’ll probably find the jam offered at breakfast in the dining hall. You may find the purplish black crowberry which was added to boiled puddings here in Battle Harbour. The reddish-orange berries are likely the crackerberry or the Swedish bunchberry.
If you can go, you will not regret the time it takes to get to Battle Harbour.

Happy RVing !
For more than four decades James Stoness has travelled the roads of North America, photographing and writing about what he has seen. His travel articles and beautiful pictures have been published in several magazines and newspapers. He is also the author of five western novels. Visit his website at: www.stonesstravelguides.com