Uncovering Jon Guy’s original homestead established in 1610 was no easy feat. That the Cupers Cove he settled in was known in present day as Cupids had been common knowledge. Even John Guy’s preserved correspondence spoke of physical characteristics of the community that can be found even today. Period maps, some as old as 1625, confirmed a Cupers Cove on the south side of Bay de Grave where Cupids exists today.

Bill Gilbert writes:

“Our survey began on June 7, 1995 but before we arrived in Cupids we had already consulted the letters and other documents left behind by the people who settled Cupers Cove and found three clues that helped narrow down the location of the site. In his letter of 16 May 1611, John Guy tells us that the lake at the bottom of Cupids harbour was “within twelve score of our habitation". Since a score is a distance of twenty paces, the plantation must have stood roughly 240 paces from the lake. Both Guy and another colonist, Henry Crout, mention that the plantation was near a brook. Guys says that he went to the brook every morning to wash and Crout mentions that in the spring of 1613, after a hard winter, they were catching trout in that brook. Finally, Crout mentions that the plantation was on the landward side of the salt-water pond at the bottom of Cupids harbour. Taken together, these three clues defined an area of about 1/2 km at the bottom of Cupids harbour somewhere within which the colony must once have stood.”

As the parameters of the search area narrowed, the arrival of a savage wind storm unveiled tantalizing evidence that their search was nearing an end. In the dirt thrown up by uprooted trees, Gilbert and his team found fragments of seventeenth century ceramics, bottles, even clay tobacco pipes. Their testing at the immediate area revealed that they had indeed uncovered a seventeenth century site whose measurements were very close to those that supposedly encompassed John Guy’s original settlement site in 1610. Pay dirt.

Following the honoured archaeological methods, they soon discovered a brick lined stone fireplace. The artifacts found in the immediate vicinity pinpointed the ruins as an early 17h century structure that had collapsed in the latter half of the same century. The dwelling house and store house of John Guy’s original 1610 homestead was found.

In the careful, meticulous, excavations that followed over the next 15 years, the team was literally digging back through layers of time. Not only would they uncover two of the oldest European buildings in North America, but an absolute treasure trove of artifacts and historical objects (over 150,000 to date) as well as defensive walls (there were pirates to worry about back then), evidence of iron working and even a cemetery located almost directly behind the homestead site.

For more information about the important historical and cultural work of the team and their many discoveries throughout the Bay de Verde Peninsula area, visit them online at:

www.baccalieudigs.com

To see some of the extraordinary cache of artifacts discovered at the Cupids archaeological site, visit the Cupids Legacy Centre, opening in May, 2010.

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