Summary: Mary March Museum, Corduroy Brook Nature Trail, North Atlantic Aviation Museum, Silent Witness Memorial
Janet:
With about 4 hours of total driving needed to arrive at our much anticipated destination for the evening, we had plenty of time to visit sites along the way.
A short distance from last night’s hotel, this museum in Grand Falls Windsor (GFW) presents a history of the central part of Newfoundland. It is run by “The Rooms” and is a small museum but worth the 30-40 minute stop, especially at only $2.50/pp. It is two rooms in size, one of the rooms is a “permanent” display while the other changes seasonally.
The seasonal room presented an “A to Z” of current day Newfoundland in a fun and easy to understand way.
The permanent display is much more in depth look at the history, including geology, the peoples, especially the indigenous, and presentation of many artifacts found in the area.
This is a wonderful trail system in central GFW that allows for a nice walk with excellent paths/trails and boardwalks, great signage as well as varied terrain and sights. Our hotel had a small foldable city map that included the city’s streets on one side and the trail system on the back. Every city should have this type of system. Here are a few of the things we saw:
From here, via the Trans Canada Highway (#1), or as it is referred to here, “The TCH”, Gander is about an hour away and a nice place for the next stop.
John:
North Atlantic Aviation Museum
This Gander museum ($8/pp) tells the story about how the “City of Gander” came about as a result of the need for a refuelling stop for trans-Atlantic flights, particularly after the British entered WWII in 1941 and required a lot of planes that were manufactured in North America. At that time only about half of the hundred or so planes that had attempted the cross Atlantic trip actually made it. So, flying planes to the war effort was not a given by any stretch. Many froze up along the way. Originally the airport was not serviced by roads, only by the rail line that was nearby.
At one point after the war, when commercial flying took off, it was considered the world’s largest airport (for a while). All of the important people flew through Gander, from royalty to Hollywood elite. Until, that is, the advent of jets which no longer required refuelling for trans-Atlantic flights. The city meets the definition of “boom” and “bust” as it more or less disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
There is a touching display focused on the events of 9/11 and how the city of Gander came together to help feed, clothe and house between 6500 and 7000 visitors (almost doubling the population of the city) who had flights diverted in wake of the terrorism events of that day.
Silent Witness Memorial and Park (Arrow Air Crash 1985)
This Gander park and memorial (4km from Gander) are well done, although the road to it (just off the TCH) could use some work. It is a memorial to the 101st Airborne, whose Arrow Air (flight 1285) crashed at the sight shortly after take-off from the Gander airport in 1985. It is still Canada’s worst aviation disaster, killing all 256 aboard. (Swissair flight 111 that crashed off Peggy’s Cove is the second, at 229 passengers).
We stopped here for lunch and unfortunately the black flies were rampant. Halfway through our picnic we couldn’t take it anymore and fled back to the nearby car to finish eating in relative peace. (However some latched on and got in with us!)
We arrived at The Doctor’s House Inn and Spa before 6, checked in a did a hike around the (large) property, said hi to the ponies and goats and hung out relaxing in our very quiet, comfortable, spacious room. Photos will be included with the “sleeps” post.
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