RESOURCES OF PISTOLET BAY
I grew up in Pistolet Bay. It is a very sheltered area at the tip of the Northern Peninsula. The Burnt Cape ecological reserve where there are several kinds of plants only found on the cape is located in Pistolet Bay. It gets minus 40 in the winter and massive amounts of snowfall (A neighbor was mad one year because somebody drove over his two story house on a Ski-Doo and ran over his snow pipe) but food supply is plentiful. At various times of the year Lobsters, Squids and Seals are very easy to find as are Birds and Berries. Marches are loaded with a berry we call “Bakeapples” and Rasberry, Squashberry and many other type of food is available. Various Rivers are teaming with fish. Located where two currents meet at a tip of Land it is one of the best fishing spots in the World. In the 1800s The French had multiple fishing bases in Pistolet Bay including at Lanse au meadows and Ship Cove. The French base at Cape Onion still stands today and until recently was being used as a hotel. What was probably the last tribe of Beothuk Indians who lived in the Wilderness lived in Pistolet Bay. An individual known as ‘Mr. Moccashue” (Who to this day has a place called “Moccashue Marsh” named after him) was almost certainly the Last Beothuk to live in the wilderness (If not the last pure Beothuk who ever lived).
Eskimos would row over from Labrador for the summer to harvest the abundant food supply. It is at the end of one of the most scenic drives in the world. The three hundred mile drive up the Northern Peninsula would easily be one of the worlds great scenic Driving experiences if it was located in a more accessible place. The well known scenic drive up the Northern Peninsula has nothing on it. Today Moose is easily seen along the route – although they were not there in the 1800s when my history told for this webpage takes place. But in the olden days Pistolet had abundance that attracted Vikings, Beothuks, French, Eskimos, English and Pirates.
PISTOLET BAY newfoundlandfamilytree