The North Bay narrative

by Walter Staples

The North Bay Narrative is the remarkable story of a remote Newfoundland village and its evolution from a community of a few families where men built boats by hand to today's collection of cottages where men guide visiting Atlantic salmon fishermen. Author and ardent fisherman Walter Staples made his first trip to this wild area of southwest Newfoundland in 1980. He had heard about the beautiful La Polie River valley and its runs of Atlantic salmon. What he discovered, however, was a much more complex story about rugged pioneer families who moved far from the nearest village in hopes of carving out a livelihood from the dense forest. North Bay's first settlers began building ocean-going fishing boats, cutting trees by hand, pulling them from the woods to the river bank, and floating the logs downstream to the village. The logs were pulled ashore and cut into boards by men using pit saws. The completed vessels, some sixty feet long, were launched by hand to the river, and sold to fisher