Spotlight on the Willow Tree Walk

Newfoundland and Labrador is a place proudly steeped in its storytelling traditions. The scenic community of Hant's Harbour in Trinity Bay is no exception.

If you're familiar with the area, you might also be familiar with the story of the "Great Wall" of Hant's Harbour, the history of the local fish plant and how nuisance crab hanging onto gill nets kickstarted a booming industry, or the significance of the town's willow trees.

Not familiar? The Willow Tree Heritage Society is hoping to change that.

In June, the Society officially launched the Willow Tree Walk — a self-guided audio tour that aims to get people acquainted with the town's fascinating stories and history. The audio tour includes nine points of interest around Hant's Harbour, with stories brought to life by people with deep connections to the community, including mayor Korri Power and others. (Click here to explore the Willow Tree Walk.)

The Willow Tree Walk in Hant’s Harbour includes nine local points of interest, including Caplin Cove.

The idea for the project came to Marlayne Hardy, chair of the Willow Tree Heritage Society (and executive producer of the Willow Tree Walk) while on vacation in Italy several years ago. While there, she and her husband discovered several audio tours that they could download for free and use to help them explore various towns and churches at their leisure. The idea really started to take shape a couple of summers ago, after a visit to Battle Harbour along the Labrador coast, where they downloaded an app featuring local stories. This got her thinking about how the same idea could be applied to Hant's Harbour.

"Every community in Newfoundland and Labrador has these stories. Every time I talk to somebody that's from a different place, they tell me something interesting...well, Hant's Harbour has lots of interesting stories," she says.

"So we just wanted to find a way to make it engaging and capture them somehow, and really encourage people to come and have a look at Hant's Harbour and see what's there, because there are some things that we think are really special."

Last year, Hardy and her team worked on a basic version of the Willow Tree Walk, which included a map without audio. But they had a desire to make it more interesting, engaging and accessible, while preserving the stories digitally for future generations. Thanks to the work of volunteers, and funding from the province's Cultural Economic Development Program (CEDP), their vision became a reality. 

This past June, the Willow Tree Heritage Society officially launched the Willow Tree Walk at an event attended by around 80 people — a testament to the interest in local history and culture. 

Marlayne Hardy speaks to the crowd at the launch of the Willow Tree Walk this past June in Hant’s Harbour.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing parts of that history, and one of the highlights of the Willow Tree Walk, Hardy says, is the story behind how the Willow Tree Heritage Society got its name. One of the sites they operate is the Willow Tree Heritage Cemetery, which includes trees that honour seven victims of a shipwreck off the coast of Hant's Habour that occurred in December of 1835. After their bodies were stranded on a cliff, not accessible by boat, the men of Hant's Harbour got together to hatch a plan to retrieve them, by lowering one of them over the cliff in a leather harness. 

"Together, they brought up the bodies of the seven men. And they lit seven fires on the top of the cliff — because the ship was from Trinity, which is directly across the bay — to let Trinity know that seven people had died," Hardy says, adding that Trinity then lit their own fire to acknowledge the message had been received.

"The men were buried in the Willow Tree Cemetery and in the spring the following year, the widow of one of the men sent over a slip of a willow tree which was planted on the graves. And the willow trees are still there today."

The Willow Tree Walk wouldn't be possible, Hardy says, without the contributions of local artists who lent their time and talents to help bring it to life. Those artists include Sharon King-Campbell (scriptwriter), Katie Hardy (graphic artist), Andy Jones (who recorded the lighthouse story), Brad Tuck (who composed the theme music for the audio stories) and Stéphane Dandeneau (audio producer). 

"They have made this project really, really amazing," Hardy says. 

The audio tour is accessible via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the Willow Tree Heritage Society's YouTube channel and website (which lets those who can't make it to Hant's Habour enjoy the stories too, Hardy says). If you do visit Hant's Harbour, Hardy recommends downloading the stories before your arrival, or connecting to the Willow Tree Museum's Wi-Fi during their operating hours in the summer months. 

Hardy hopes the Willow Tree Walk will help entice more people to visit Hant's Harbour and the community museum to soak in the sites and learn more about the local history. An unexpected but lovely result, she adds, is the sense of pride it's helped stoke among locals.

"When I was speaking to them in the few days leading up to the launch, people were so proud. They were excited. They were engaged in a way that I didn't realize they would be. You could almost see them walking a little taller.... we had people in tears. There were several people that were just so touched by hearing the stories," she says.

Hardy also hopes the Willow Tree Walk will help bring people together in new ways. 

"I think people are looking for a way to be engaged in the world. We don't want to ignore technology, but there's a way to use technology to still get outside and appreciate our province and all the amazing things it has to offer and really make our experiences even more meaningful," she says. 

"People are more lonely these days. They're looking for a way to connect. I think you'll hear that sense of connection in all the stories."