Adventure /Cultural Tourism

The Raleigh Historical Corporation Inc. is developing a learning vacation package. Now that the restoration of the physical structures and buildings, such as the fishermen houses, stages, wharves, the 'Rooms' and flakes has been restored, the Corporation will embark on an Adventure/Cultural Tourism program. We plan to build within our existing community, its ancestral version. The goal of this program is for its participants to experience the bygone era of the Newfoundland fishery. How would you like to experience first hand the might of the North Atlantic—to sail the waters of the Basque and the Vikings? How would you like to partake in the trials and tribulations which has made Newfoundlanders and Labradorians the people you see today? Would you be able to endure the hardship and the struggle for survival against an unpredictable environment? Would you like to experience the way of life of our pioneering forefathers? This Adventure/Cultural Tourism program will be designed to do just that.

Participants will live in bunkhouses for periods of time and partake in the fishery as it was in days gone by. To accomplish this, the Corporation will restore a ‘fishing enterprise’ as it existed in the 1940s and 1950s. Visitors will fish from a trap skiff, an open boat which exposes one quite liberally to the elements. They will learn and be part of setting a cod trap and then yielding the catch. As in bygone days, the day will not end with the harvesting of fish. The fish will need cleaning and splitting and then curing, in order for it to be placed  on flakes for drying. This program will require a unique kind of adventure seeker, one unafraid to go that extra mile to truly appreciate the level of skill and the undaunted spirit from which we have learned the value of hard work, and the essence which makes us the people that we are. The wind will not always be idle, the sea will not always be calm, whales will not always be appreciated and icebergs will not always be beautiful. Our ancestors persisted against raging winds and unruly tides. Their gear was often ravaged and destroyed by whales and icebergs. Natural obstacles will blend with the physical ones and the challenge of the North Atlantic will allow you to form a new appreciation of what it really takes to be a fisher person. It will give you a new perspective where beauty will truly lie in the heart of the beholder.