'Dildo Island',
Newfoundland, is the largest of three islands located at the entrance to Dildo Arm in the bottom of
Trinity Bay, off the coast of the neighboring town
Dildo.
Dildo Island had its name before 1711.
An
archaeological excavation in 1995 discovered
Dorset Eskimo artifacts which radiocarbon dated to between AD
150 and AD
750. It is believed that these people camped on Dildo Island for the purpose of seal hunting. From 1996 to 1999, archaeologist
Silve Leblanc uncovered two Dorset houses and over 5500 artifacts from the same period.
In 2001 excavations were begun on a recently-discoved Indian site that radiocarbon dated to between AD
720 and AD
960. Evidence of a camp was found with the remnants of a
wigwam and
hearth. Almost all of the
tools were made from purple and blue
rhyolites that came from a source in
Bonavista Bay roughly 145 km (90
miles) to the north.
John Guy's journal of
1612 suggested evidence of a
Beothuk Indian camp on Dildo Island. An English
fort was established in the early
1700s to defend the south side of
Trinity Bay from the French during
Queen Anne's War.
Newfoundland's first cod hatchery was constructed in
1889 by a Norwegian,
Adolphus Nielson, to improve the
cod stocks of Trinity Bay. It was the largest in the world and the first in North America.
External link
★ http://www.baccalieutourism.com/dorsetsite.htm