The QOR-East executive is presently working on organizing a Get-To-Gather and Social at Marystown Hotel on May 28, 2011. A note was sent out with a brief update of News.

We are asking you to tell us if you are attending this Get-To-Gather. If so are you bringing any guests?

It is important we have the numbers to avoid disappointments to members and guests and unnecessary expense to the association.

Keep an eye out here for updates and messages. Please send your comments to ben@qor-east.com You may also use our Guest Book. It is our own twitter page.

All Executive and members who wish to attend the meeting should arrive early (2:00 pm) for a short meeting. Meet and Greet that evening at the hotel. Then leave early next morning (8 am) and travel to Bay L'Argent (binoculars and cameras are a must) to take the ferry across to Rencontre East (1hr. 45min sailing) to visit Jim's Sheppard's Military Museum. Arriving back in Bay L'Argent at 4:45 PM, at which time you may disperse OR return to Marystown Hotel for a second night of rest. The next morning on to a sightseeing tour on the Heritage Run around the boot of the Burin Peninsula the next day. This is a worthwhile trip if you have not been there.

The Heritage Run

Route 210 is 479 km, it takes you down the Burin Peninsula which differs from the rest of the province in both geography and outlook. Separated from the seat of political power in St. John's for centuries the Burin Peninsula developed its own trade links with the Eastern Seaboard and beyond. Everything from its dialects to its traditional set and square dances to it's architectural is different. 

Swift Current has long been a favorite area for sports fishing and hiking. Just south of there is Piper's Hole where, according to legend, the mournful tune of a French soldier killed in battle can still be heard. 

Most communities are on the peninsula's east side in Placentia Bay, reflecting the good anchorage, abundance of fish and pebble beaches for drying fish when Europeans began to fish here. There are only a handful of communities on the west side in Fortune Bay. One of these is Bay L'Argent, where a coastal boat – (passengers and freight only) - connects with the community of Rencontre East  and, further west, Pool's Cove on the Coast of Bays. The return journey is an ideal day trip.

The highway crosses maritime barrens, one of the main eco-regions that characterize the province's ecology. The boulders dotting the landscape are dropped by melting glaciers 10,000 years ago. If you look closely you will see the gouges left behind by the glacial movement. The community names reflect the diverse European influences on early settlement: Spanish Room, Jean de Baie and Rock Harbour. Basque and Portuguese influences are sometimes buried under several layers of translation of the original names.

Marystown is the largest community and the commercial hub and service centre in the region. The main heavy industry is a shipyard and fabrication facility for the offshore oil industry. 

Nearby Burin on Route 221, which is built along a series of high cliffs and sheltered coves, was once a haven for pirates and privateers. Take a stroll along the Oldest Colony Trust boardwalk in Burin Harbor. Captain James Cook stationed troops atop what is now called Cook's Lookout to keep an eye on rum-runners operating between French Saint-Pierre and the peninsula, a job that has been taken over by the RCMP in modern times. The community museum has excellent displays on the 1929 Tsunami that devastated the coast. 

Winterland, on Route 222, has the best soil on the peninsula, and has been a farming area since the dark days of the Depression. It's also a good place for birding.

One of the most famous communities is St. Lawrence. Legend has it that the first settlers were survivors who escaped the sinking of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's ship in 1583. A few days before the sinking, Gilbert had claimed Newfoundland for England at a St. John's ceremony that was mocked by the attending European sailors. The Miner's Museum is located there.

In 1942, two U.S. warships ran aground, and 186 sailors were saved by people from St. Lawrence and Lawn who risked their lives on icy cliffs to bring the men ashore, and then took them into their homes.

One of the rescued sailors was Lanier Phillips, an African-American who had first-hand experience of racism. See Youtube. The kindness shown him by the people of St. Lawrence - most of whom had never before seen someone of African descent - helped him imagine a better world, and he went on to help desegregate the U.S. Navy. The town was also the site of a now-closed fluorspar mine.

But its modern claim to fame is the men's Laurentians soccer team, which has dominated the game since the 1960s. This perennial powerhouse from a town of only 1,700 has won numerous provincial championships, and a silver medal at the national championships in 2002. No wonder the town bills itself as the `Soccer Capital of Canada'.

Grand Bank is the quintessential Newfoundland outport. More than any other port, this town is associated with the Grand Banks schooner fishery for which it is named. The town's architecture reflects the prosperity and loss that go hand-in-hand with the fishery. The excellent examples of Queen Anne-style houses are topped by `widow's walks' where the wives of well-to-do skippers waited, sometimes in vain, for their husbands' return. Buildings in the town have features borrowed from eastern Canada and New England, reflecting the reach of the fish trade. The Provincial Seamen's Museum is located here. 

Nearby Fortune, from where a passenger boat sails in summer to Saint-Pierre, derives its name from the Portuguese 'fortuna', which can mean both good and ill fortune. The lighthouse at Fortune Head, one of several prominent lights along the coast, is surrounded by an ecological reserve that preserves fossils marking the boundary between the Precambrian and Cambrian geological eras about 530 million years ago. 

Saint-Pierre is just an hour away, and is a good place to buy French wine and perfumes. But remember, you have to clear customs on your return.  

The last stop is Frenchman's Cove on Route 213 where there's a nine-hole golf course in the provincial park. Hiking trails from here to nearby Garnish and Grand Beach cross beaches that are a great place to see the light over Fortune Bay.

Download an MP3 of  "The Voices of Eight Serving Soldiers" REMEMBERING