- The Move
A video on the resettlement of the Rumboldt family
in 1968.




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Pass Island

Pass Island (pop. 1971, 160) is a resettled fishing community just 250 m off the tip of the peninsula which separates Hermitage and Connaigre bays. The community was resettled, largely to nearby Hermitage, in the summer of 1974 -- the last community to move under the resettlement program.

Providing the closest access to some of the major fishing banks of Fortune Bay, to the south towards St. Pierre and Miquelon, Pass Island was one of the earliest settled sites in the area. Captain James Cook reported several English fishermen using shore space on the Island in 1763, with two of the families remaining over the winter.

The first Newfoundland Census, in 1836, recorded 56 people living there. The population had grown to 110 by 1857 and to 215 by 1874. A Church of England church had been built by 1869 and a school established by 1874.

The reputation of Pass Island as a close-knit and successful fishing community kept it from being resettled in the 1960s, when many other island communities were abandoned. Instead a road was built up to Pass Island Tickle. However, when Grole opted to resettle in the late 1960s the isolation of Pass Island increased. In 1974, with a new fish plant being proposed for Hermitage and with the prospect of being able to continue to fish traditional grounds from that site by longliners, the Pass Islanders decided to move. In 1992 wharves at Pass Island Tickle were still maintained, for the convenience of keepers at the lighthouse (established in 1870) and a few former residents who still kept premises there.

From the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador


House of Charles and Susan Piercey

House of Charles and Susan Piercey
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