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Current Population: 285
Location: Adjacent south of Eastport along Route 310.
Historical Overview
Place Name Origin: Happy Adventure got its name from an incident involving a fishing ship pursued by pirates that sought and received temporary shelter from detection in the waters of Happy Adventure's bays. The name came from the outcome of this adventure.
Names and Dates of First Settlers:
- A man named Turner who came to the bay when the alleged pirate incident, believed to have taken place in the late 1700's, first visited Happy Adventure.
- Another man named Albrooks came to Happy Adventure at this time, giving his name to Albrook's Head.
- After the time in which the pirates had left Happy Adventure, the residents of the early-inhabited headland settlements of Bonavista Bay next visited the area seasonally. This settling was undertaken in the 1860's in order to exploit the areas wood supplies and excellent land.
- Local oral traditions and documents point to the Powell and Moss families as among the first permanent settlers of Happy Adventure, also in the 1860's.
- The Powell's settled in what is now known as Powell's Cove.
- Joseph Cuff settled at Bonavista and changed his name to Matchim. His descendents later moved to Happy Adventure.
First Recorded Populations:
- Happy Adventure first appeared in the Census of 1869 with a population of 51.
- The population increased to 415 by 1961, and decreased to 364 in 1971.
- The community has had a predominant Church of England (Anglican) population.
Major Early Industries:
- Located near the impressive lumber stands of the central Bonavista Bay region which covers a large part of the Eastport Peninsula and both shores of Newman Sound. Happy Adventure is situated far from the prime fishing locations near the headlands of the peninsula.
- Since the building of the Terra Nova National Park in the 1950's, access to forest resources has been limited and Happy Adventure residents have sought their livelihood in the inshore fishery and outside the community in construction work, trades, services and sawmilling.
- The Labrador seal hunt and the inshore fishery are main sources of employment.
- The building of a trans-insular railway, which ran near the base of the Eastport peninsula, and the development of extensive sawmilling operations along the heavily wooded shores of Clode Sound and Newman Sound in the 1880's and 1890's, gave rise to a new and lucrative source of cash income.
- Thomas Turner, a merchant mill-owner began a gasoline-operated mill at Salton's Brook which was in use until approximately 1945 cutting railway ties, boat planks and lumber for local markets. This operation was awarded a contract by Bowring Company to supply pit props for English markets. This employed many people in communities all over southern Bonavista Bay.
- Employment was gained for many Happy Adventure workers by the 1930's and 1940's in pulpwood operations which transformed the settlement into a 'virtual ghost town', as loggers and their families moved 'up the bay' in the fall to be near the timber stands until spring.
- Sawmilling continued to be a feature of the Happy Adventure economy although the creation of the Terra Nova National Park cut off access to valuable stands of timber, which had formally been the mainstay of the sawmilling and pulpwood operation.
- In 1978, two mills were supplying mainly local needs.
Services
Place of Worship:
- United Church of the Good Shepherd: Church Services vary. Contact Harry Clark at (709) 677-2149 to inquire.
Attractions
Little Sandy Cove Beach
European bird known as Common Red Shank was sited in the spring 1999 on Little Sandy Cove Beach.
Significant Architecture
- First school was a Church of England school, which was built between 1886 and 1891.
- Both Church of England and Methodist two-room schools existed in Happy Adventure.
- In the late 1960's, there was a centralized elementary and high school in Eastport.
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