A TOURIST’S PARADISE ON ROUTE 380

A calm and peaceful scene from Upper Crescent. (Photo: Mike B. Parsons)

Highway 380, beginning at South Brook (the Gateway to Green Bay South), Halls Bay, and continuing to Brighton, has noteworthy attractions all along its entirety: breathtaking scenery, beautiful ponds and lakes, walking and adventure trails, heritage centers, boat tours, a ferry link, parks, AirB &Bs, and restaurants, inns, and cafes which serve mouth-watering homestyle meals. Coupled with these features, the area boasts some of the friendliest people in the province of NL. These residents enjoy meeting visitors and are quite willing to share stories and cultural and heritage values from the GBS area of our beautiful province.

 

This article will single out one particular area on Route 380. This area has no less than 5 of the above features all compacted into one unique section of Roberts Arm and its close proximity. A 22-km drive down Route 380 will take a traveller to the Roberts Arm Heritage House which houses a museum, and Jack’s Place, a tea room. This center is located just outside the entrance to the Crescent Lake RV Park. A section of the park is located on the northwest bank of beautiful Crescent Lake. Drive another 0.8 km and you will arrive at the parking lot marking the entrance to the Hazelnut Hill Hiking and Adventure Trail. This 8.5+ kilometer trail can also be accessed from the road leading into the park. The whole area (including the lake section), encompassing an area of approximately 3 to 4 sq. km, has breathtakingly scenic sights worthy of being photographed.

 

 

Campsites at the park.

The Roberts Arm Heritage house has a long history with a significant connection to the Bowaters pulpwood operation here in the area. The house was originally owned by A. J. Hewlett. It was constructed for Hewlett in 1937, shortly after the startup of the Botwater pulpwood industry in the Roberts Arm area. He was a local contractor who secured a substantial pulpwood-cutting contract with the Corner Brook-based company. Roughly 3 years later, in 1939, Hewlett had approximately 250 employees cutting pulpwood for the Bowater papermill at the west coast town. The house, a cut above the regular homes in Roberts Arm at the time, had a number of outstanding architectural features. The 1 1/2-storey structure had a mid-pitched roof containing a small bay. The exterior is meticulously finished with narrow-gage wooden clapboard, boxed eave returns and trim, and wide corner and water boards. The interior, containing a number of rooms on the bottom level, with a stairway leading to 2 bedrooms and a hallway on the upper level, is attractively decorated with wide trim and molding and hardwood flooring. These interior features have remained unchanged, and the only exterior upgrades are a coat of paint, new bridges (including a wheelchair ramp), and a screened-in sunporch to accommodate visitors to the tea room on hot summer days.

A tire representation of Lake Crescent’s monster “Cressie!”

In 2003, the Hewlett house, which at the time was located on the north side of Roberts Arm, was donated to the town by Trudy and Keith Anthony. The Anthonys purchased the lot, on which the Hewlett house was located, to construct their new home. The Town of Roberts Arm removed the 1930s-built  house and relocated it to a site adjacent to the entrance to the Roberts Arm Municipal Park, right off Route 380! It was designated as the Roberts Arm Heritage House later in the same year it was donated. There had been a limited number of artifacts left in the house and these were incorporated into its use. Later, a request was made to local residents for the donation of other artifacts to supplement those which were already at the Centre. This request met with amazing results. All donated artifacts were labeled and displayed appropriately. On July 16, 2004, the Heritage House was ready to open its doors to the public. Since its official opening, there has been an addition of local crafts for visitors to purchase. Then, in 2022, a tea room was opened and appropriately named Jack’s Place. Three local ladies, affectionately termed the Triple D’s (Darlene, Della, and Denise), volunteered their time at the museum and tea room for the past 3 tourist seasons. First off, residents donated a variety of desserts to be served with tea/coffee/pop at the tea room. The next summer, simple home-cooked meals were donated together with desserts, with all proceeds going towards its operation and upkeep. These sweet ladies always served meals with a smile and related stories about the history of the Heritage Centre and its collection of artifacts.

 

Crescent Lake RV Park was originally started prior to the Peckford Administration by the Town of Roberts Arm. At that time, it was simply a picnic and tenting area, with limited camping facilities. Its potential was such that, had the Peckford PCs been re-elected, their intent was to develop it into a Destination Park for the GBS area, which it now basically serves as. Then, about 10 years ago, a Roberts Arm couple, Doug and Rosalind Winsor, saw its potential once again and secured the park and extensively developed it into an RV operation with some 37 camp sites, all with electrical services. They operated the park for 8 years, attracting visitors from all across the province, the country, the USA, and indeed from parts of Europe. The Winsors established a reputation for themselves and the park with these annual visitors, an impression which brought them back year after year. For the past couple of years or so, the Town of Roberts Arm expressed interest in acquiring the park again. Earlier this year, the council purchased it for the purpose of operating it for the benefit of the town and to further promote tourism within the area. Now, it will be operated in conjunction with the trail, the heritage centre, and the lake – a unified package deal for tourists!

The lake on which the park is located is the largest body of water in the Green Bay South area. Crescent Lake, acquiring the name from its crescent moon shape, is approx. 8 kilometers long, ranging in width from 1/10 – 3/10 km. This deep water lake, and Tommy’s Arm River flowing in and out, were incorporated into the transporting of pulpwood to the Bowaters shipping port at Tommy’s Arm. Signage posted along the hiking trail in the lower section of the lake gives details on some of the major events during the company’s 40-year operation. In addition to its relevance to the pulpwood industry, Lake Crescent is home to our lake monster “Cressie,” a feature which dates back to the early 1940s. In early 2000, the lake and its phenomenon were put on the world stage by the American paranormal investigating team of Benjamin Radford and the late Joe Nickell. The results of that investigation are available in a YouTube video:  “Monster Quest – Lake Monster of the North.” Both signage and sites along the HHH and A TRAIL highlight the local monster.

Today, the lake (and river) maintains its popularity for a wide variety of recreational activities: fishing (trout, ouananiche, and salmon), boating (pleasure craft, sailboat, peddal boat, pontoon boat, canoe, kayak, and seadoo), swimming, picnicking and tenting on its beaches/island, and photographs. All of these pleasurable activities are within close proximity to those who camp at the Crescent Lake RV Park or for those who visit any of the towns in Green Bay South.

 

One can access the Hazelnut Hill Hiking and Adventure Trail from the road leading to the CL RV Park, which it traverses, but the actual beginning of the trail, marked by a beautiful gazebo, is 0.8 km down Route 380 towards Roberts Arm. Labeled as one of the most beautiful trails in Central NL, this 8.5+km trail has easy and difficult sections. Constructed in the early 1990s, this trail has some of the most spectacular scenery found anywhere on the Island of Newfoundland. Each year, there are upgrades to the trail and new signage added. It basically circumnavigates the lower section of Crescent Lake from the narrows down to where the Tommy’s Arm River empties out. There are basically two sections to the walking trail, each with its level of difficulty. First of all, for those who prefer walking on primarily level terrain, there is the Cressie Loop, a walking distance of approximately 5 km. Those hikers and sightseers who want a more challenging encounter should embark on the complete length of the trail. This will take in the George Baker Bridge, spanning the lake narrows, the Long Pond Brook Bridge, and Hazelnut Hill itself. The number of steps to climb to access Long Pond Bridge is minimal compared to reaching the top of Hazelnut. There is a series of steps to access before achieving a total height of 428 feet! From the summit of Hazelnut Hill, named because of its hazelnut shape, one has a panoramic bird’s eye view of the surrounding area: Crescent Lake, Long Lake (Pond), the Narrows and the George Baker Bridge, the CL RV Park, the Town of Roberts Arm (situated on a somewhat delta-style piece of land lying between bodies of fresh and saltwater), and Jerry’s Run (salt water area beyond the harbour).

A fall scene of Crescent Lake from Charlie’s Lookout.

 

 

Fred Parsons can be reached by phone at 1-709-650-0185 or by email at: fredparsons72@gmail.com.

He currently resides at Roberts Arm.

All photos by Pansy Snow – except #1 and #16.