Churchill River - “Hpvlgsbylb”
Life in Happy Valley-Goose Bay
On long-distance phone bills, the name Happy Valley-Goose
Bay looks like a typographic error: Hpvlgsbylb.
And, for a small town of 9,000 people surrounded by
the wilderness of Labrador, Happy Valley-Goose Bay does
get a lot of long-distance phone calls.
The community houses a steady flow of overseas visitors.
Located at the western end of Lake Melville, a saltwater
lake that extends more than 200 km inland from the Labrador
Sea, it is an important training base for military fliers
of Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Great Britain,
and Canada .
The military air base at Goose Bay was built during
World War II as a fuel stop for aircraft flying from
the United States to Europe. Hundreds of jobs suddenly
became available, and people converged on the town from
all over Labrador — by canoe, motor boat, dog team, and
They first pitched their tents next to the new base
but were soon ordered to move to a spot on the Churchill
River. Once called Skunk Hollow, the town site was renamed
Hamilton River Village, and then, Happy Valley-Goose
For a time, the town’s airport was the busiest in the
world. At the end of World War II, it became a key location
during the ‘Cold War’ with the former Soviet Union.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay was considered vital to the defence
of North America against the threat of Soviet bombers
attacking over the North Pole. The air base needed support
services, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay grew to house, feed,
entertain, and meet the daily needs of both military
and civilian personnel and their families.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay has become the main service centre
for Labrador. But the town’s distance from major cities
including St. John’s, Newfoundland, its lack of highway
access, and the limited shipping season deny it the potential
to develop manufacturing businesses. Still, Mayor Harry
Baikie describes the town as being poised for growth.
Development, industry and new people are welcomed.
The town is a culturally and socially diverse community
of Innu, Inuit, Métis, and transplanted, non-aboriginal
Canadians including Newfoundlanders, and transient Europeans,
all living in a close-knit society.
Adventure travel and tourism, hunting, and fishing are
important sources of outside revenue, but Labrador’s
short summer season and the intensity of its biting flies
prevent it from becoming an extremely popular or casual
tourist destination for those without significant wilderness
experience. As one Tourism Labrador employee put it,
‘Labrador is not for the faint of heart.’
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