Electricity and history are struggling to coexist at a lake in central Newfoundland, where the last remnants of a lost culture are at risk of washing into the water.
History grapples with electricity at Beothuk Lake, where the last remnants of a lost culture are washing away
More than 100 years later, the struggle between history and electricity at Beothuk Lake continues. Humber — the mayor of nearby Millertown — believes Newfoundland’s utility giant is doing a poor job managing the water levels. Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, meanwhile, says the coastal erosion around Beothuk Lake is a natural process and “will continue regardless of operating levels.”“We don’t want to see it washed away,” Humber said.
Artifacts from near the site date to the 1800s. Those pieces, plus the location of the house pit far back off the lake, indicate it was one of the later settlements before the Beothuk culture disappeared. “That would be a terrible loss,” he said. “To put it in perspective … on Beothuk Lake we have 50 historically documented structures, and we can account for two of them right now.”Rick Noftle gazed off the patio of his cabin on the north side of Beothuk Lake to his neighbours’ places down the cove. While he’s been busy building a new garage on his property, they’ve been building rock walls around their cabins.
Coastal erosion is happening everywhere, he said, but around here the water levels are controlled by N.L. Hydro. Noftle said the water stayed after the spring melt this year, and didn’t go down until early August. Noftle said they always refer to graphs on the Environment and Climate Change Canada website that show the water levels on the lake at Indian Point. The levels went from a low of 151 metres this past winter to 156 metres in the spring, which Hydro says is within the normal range.Rick Noftle owns a cabin on Beothuk Lake, near Buchans.
That creates complications for the cabin owners in the area — many of whom have been there for decades. Some have spent small fortunes to build and rebuild roads that keep getting washed out. Others have shelled out $10,000 or more for retaining walls around their properties. A few have tried to sell and leave but struggled to find buyers because of the annual floodwaters.It’s a familiar problem across the lake in Millertown.
Noftle and Humber both said they’ve been repeatedly promised followup meetings to discuss the report, but they’ve been waiting without results since 2020. “I don’t think it’s as easy as just asking N.L. Hydro to lower the water level arbitrarily,” he said. “Maybe they can, a little. Or maybe there’s a significant cost to doing that as well. I’m not sure. But as I say, the damage has already been done there.”
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