INTRODUCTION
This report presents the results of a Stage 1 Historic Resources Impact Assessment of the shorelines of Green Island Lake and the northern extremity of Eastern Lake. Green Island Lake and Eastern Lake are situated near the northern tip of the Northern Peninsula approximately six kilometres east of the community of Sandy Cove (Figure 1).
A crew of three archaeologists accessed and checked the cottage development area between July 2, 1997 and July 5, 1997. Access to the study area was made possible by two locally owned Argo all-terrain vehicles. Crew and gear were transported to the shores of Green Island Lake where a short outboard ride brought us to our field cabin on an unnamed island at the north end of Green Island Lake. Due to wet conditions, no other field transportation would have managed the muddy, deeply rutted (due to years of snowmobile, Argo, and ATV traffic) bog terrain between Sandy Cove and Green Island Lake.
Description of Study Area
The study area is an interior boreal forest and bog landscape. Cabins currently exist only along the northwest end of Green Island Lake and at the southernmost end of Eastern Lake. The marshy landscape between the coast and these lakes is extensively disturbed by countless all-terrain vehicle tracks. This is an isolated interior region inasmuch as there is no navigable water route connecting the lake system with the coast.
Green Island Lake is approximately nine kilometres in length, running southwest to northeast, and one and a half kilometres in width. It is a very shallow lake and our first task upon arrival was familiarization with the numerous shoal areas. The rocky shorelines rise steeply for one to three metres. The west shore is bounded by a discontinuous terrace about twelve metres above water level backed by a marshland extending all the way to the coast. The eastern shore is quite level, marshy, and treed in spots. Eastern Lake is five kilometres in length, also running southwest to northeast, and about one and a half kilometres in width. The two bodies of water are separated by a marshy, 500 m wide isthmus at the southernmost end of Green Island Lake.
The oral tradition of one particular family in Sandy Cove indicates that Micmacs had hunted in the interior of the Northern Peninsula around the turn of the century. This information came to one family member in particular from his uncle who passed away in 1991 at the age of 102. The nephew, his cousin, and the latter's wife all recounted how their parents' generation (and they, as children) used to walk into the interior to scythe and collect grasses for winter fodder. The grasses would be piled, covered with netting, and brought to the coast in winter by komatik. This was an enormous undertaking involving a walk of six kilometres across bog, and then walking further to the various widely interspersed grassy knolls. This family further tells of tilts throughout the woods which have long since decayed. The tilts were used during hay collecting time, and also for some moose hunting and trapping. Apparently trapping in this region was minimal and mainly for muskrat and mink. The interior of the peninsula was rarely used during the summer time, and then only for piling hay. Summer acess to the interior of the Northern Peninsula continues to be very occasional, with most visitors snowmobiling in during the winter.
METHODS
Survey of the coastal region of Green Island Lake was done with a small outboard. Due to difficulties with access to Eastern Lake (pulling an outboard across 500 metres of bog) only its northernmost portion was foot-surveyed by crossing the isthmus from Green Island Lake. All surveyed areas were test-pitted. Areas which would have been considered relatively high potential along the seacoast, such as points of land, sandy terraces, did not exist at Green Island Lake. As a result, survey sites were chosen on the following basis:
- all river and stream mouths were checked as a first priority;
- a sample of all terrain surrounding the lake was test-pitted, including marshy zones, treed zones, the top of the terrace along the western shore, points of land, terraces, and islands;
- all cleared areas, including cabin lots and all-terrain vehicle tracks were carefully checked both visually and through subsurface testing;
- the extensive track between Sandy Cove and Green Island Lake was visually surveyed from a slowly moving Argo during the journeys to and from Green Island Lake.
The results of the Stage 1 Historic
Resources Overview Assessment are summarized in Table
1 and Figure 1. No evidence of cultural material
was found.
 |
 |
| Figure 1. Map of Study Area. |
The terrain is low potential if assessed
against outer coast criteria. For instance, there are no open points of
land that are not boggy or clear of dense overgrowth. Nor is there any
dry terrain, except on the intermittent 150 m terrace along the west shore.
The terrace sections are discontinuous and surrounded by very boggy terrain.
The shoreline is often sloping, and either heavily treed and bounded by
bogs, or altogether boggy.
CONCLUSIONS
In closing, extensive surface and subsurface testing of the Green Island Lake cottage development area yielded no evidence of cultural resources. The northern end of Eastern Lake was also tested with similar results.
Archaeological sites are well known for much of the coastal area of the Great Northern Peninsula. Not well understood are the peninsula's interior prehistoric cultural resources prompting the call for this Stage 1 Historic Resources Assessment. Northern Peninsula sites not situated on the outermost coast have been recorded at Parsons Pond and Portland Creek (Thomson 1987). These latter locations differ significantly from true interior sites in that they are situated along the shores of bodies of water with direct access to the seacoast. Interestingly, previously recorded prehistoric sites on the island of Newfoundland which are not on the outer coast tend to share this characteristic of being situated along interior waterways with either direct access to the outer coast as inlets, or relatively direct access to the sea via short river runs from interior ponds or lakes. The exceptions are Beothuk sites along Red Indian Lake and other interior lakes, and along the Exploits River inasmuch as these sites are situated on waterways without direct access to the outer coast (Marshall 1996, Table 16.1).
A cursory look at Stage 1 Historic Resources Assessments carried out in interior locations on the island of Newfoundland (Table 2) first of all reveals that these assessments are in response to developments which by their nature tend to be in areas of interior lakes and ponds, such as cottage development areas (for instance, Butts Pond [Stopp 1991], Old Man's Pond [Renouf 1991, Schwarz 1992]). No archaeological sites have been found during surveys of such locations. The results of these interior studies suggest that there is a low probability of finding sites at interior locations which are not directly accessible to the sea. The second trend, and the exception to the previous statement, suggests that Beothuk sites are the most likely site to be found at interior locations, and that these tend to be on both major interior waterways and on small ponds with access to the seacoast. These observations further suggest that prehistoric land use of the interior of Newfoundland may have differed significantly between culture groups, with a greater use of the interior by the Beothuk than other groups.
Coastal accessibility, and the visibility
of an access route from the sea, may or may not prove to be signifying
factors in assessing site potential for prehistoric near-coastal lakes
and ponds. Future interior and near-coastal assessments should, however,
consider these factors as potentially useful for predicting site potential.
| Table 2: Summary of Interior Sites | |
|---|---|
| Site | Reference |
| Sites Situated on interior shore
of inlet
with direct access to outer coast: |
|
| Portland Creek | Thomson 1987 |
| Parsons Pond | Thomson 1987 |
| Deer Lake Beach site | Carignan 1975; Reader 1995 |
| Sites situated on near coastal
lakes or ponds
with relatively direct access to sea: |
|
| Gambo Pond sites | Schwarz 1989,1994 |
REFERENCES
| Carignan, P. | |
| 1975 | "Archaeological Survey - 1975." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| Marshall, I. | |
| 1996 | A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press. |
| Reader, D. | |
| 1995 | "Humber Valley Archaeological Project: Interim Report of 1994 Investigations." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| Renouf, M.A.P. | |
| 1992 | "Results of Phase 1 Historic Resources Impact Assessment, Old Man's Pond, Western Newfoundland, 31 July and 4 August, 1991." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| Schwarz, F. | |
| 1989 | "Gambo II: A Report on Excavations Conducted at Five Prehistoric Sites on Gambo Pond, July-August 1988." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| 1994 | "Paleo-Eskimo and Recent Indian Subsistence and Settlement Patterns on the Island of Newfoundland." Northeast Anthropology 47:55-70. |
| Stopp, M.P. | |
| 1991 | "Cultural Resource Assessment of Butts Pond-Middle Brook Remote Site Development." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| 1998 | "Results of a Stage 1 Historic Resources Assessment of the Long Pond-Traverse Brook Cottage Development Area." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
| Thomson, C. | |
| 1987 | "Archaeological Survey of Two Interior Remote Cottage Areas at Parsons Pond and Portland Creek Pond." On file at Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. |
