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Shoal Harbour
(inc. 1972; pop. 1991, 1402). Historically a sawmilling and lumbering community,
Shoal Harbour is located on the western side of Trinity Bay, just north of
Clarenville . In 1993 Shoal Harbour was largely a residential community for the
regional service centre of Clarenville, and in that year the two communities
were amalgamated as the municipality of Clarenville-Shoal Harbour (later changed
to the town of Clarenville). The community of Shoal Harbour predates its larger neighbor.
Located several miles from the open ocean and sheltered by Random Island, the
Shoal Harbour area was used for winter woods work by fishing communities near
Trinity and on the other side of Trinity Bay from the early 1800s. In the winter
of 1847-48 two brothers named Tilley of Hant's Harbour began winter work in the
area and soon decided to settle year-round, building a sawmill in 1853. Joseph
Tilley settled at Little Shoal Harbour (now a part of Clarenville), while
``Scholar'' John Tilley is traditionally regarded as the founder of Shoal
Harbour. John Tilley was visited by the Rev. Henry Pedley in 1859, who noted
that he ``had no time to visit his saw-mill, or to take a walk into the country
to see the large pines, now only to be met with some three miles in. But I saw
his farm, a good extent of land for these parts, bearing fine crops of potatoes,
oats and grass'' (cited in Tocque). Shoal Harbour first appears in the Census of
1857, with a population of 23. Like many of the people of Hant's Harbour, the
Tilley's were Wesleyan Methodists, and by 1866 had constructed the first church
in the area. The first resident clergyman was William Swann , who came there in
1871.
 The Tilley's were soon joined by other families, many of whom were related by
marriage or were also from Hant's Harbour. Common family names of Shoal Harbour
by the 1890s included Butler, Clinch, Ivany, Lowe, Palmer, Tuck, Tilley and
Wiseman. There were 104 people by 1891. In that year the railway line was built
through Shoal Harbour, leaving the coast to follow the Shoal Harbour River
across the base of the Bonavista Peninsula to Port Blandford . The line provided
better access to the country around Thorburn Lake which had come to supply the
sawmills of Shoal Harbour. By this time, however, the pine which had originally
attracted settlement was largely cut out and many people began to work in
railway construction, or left Shoal Harbour for seasonal woods work in the area
around Port Blandford. Still, by 1901 the population of Shoal Harbour had
increased to 178. Meanwhile, control of most of the usable land in the community
passed out of the hands of the Tilley family. The Tilley sawmill was closed in
about 1900.
Forest fires in 1892 and 1903 damaged timber in the area, while the earlier
blaze burned the Shoal Harbour Methodist church and several dwellings.
Subsequently sawmilling interests were reorganized to log Random Island and,
after the completion of a branch railway from Shoal Harbour to Bonavista in
1911, the interior of the Bonavista Peninsula. Production shifted from lumber to
more specialized mills, such as the box mill established by the Wiseman family
(largely producing biscuit boxes) and a cooperage established by William Mills
and Sons to the north of Shoal Harbour. After the completion of the Bonavista
branch railway Mills Siding grew to rival Shoal Harbour ``proper'' and was the
location of the Mills family mill and general business. In 1935 the population
of Shoal Harbour and Mills Siding was 310.
In 1935 the population of Clarenville was also 310, but Shoal Harbour's neighboring
community soon experienced a major period of growth, as an asphalt
and creosote plant was built near the Clarenville railway yard, followed by a
shipyard in 1942. There were almost 1000 people in Clarenville by 1945 and
services for the area soon became more concentrated in the larger centre. There
was a major influx of people from resettled fishing communities in the 1960s
(from 1966 to 1976 the population of Shoal Harbour grew from 568 to 1009).
Subsequently, much of the growth of Shoal Harbour has been tied to developments
in Clarenville.
Huntley Butler (letter, 1979, Smallwood files), D.B. Mills (MHG 102-B-1-29),
Philip Tocque (1877), Carol Tulk (MHG 41-D-1-26), Census (1857-1991), McAlpine's
Newfoundland Directory (1894), Archives (A-7-2/M/21), Newfoundland Historical
Society (Shoal Harbour).
From:
http://www.k12.nf.ca/discovery/Commmunities/acdrom/clarenville/shoalhr.html
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