Salvage and Bonavista Bay
Long before European settlement, the Salvage area was used by Indigenous peoples, with archaeological evidence in the region dating back thousands of years. By the 1500s, rich cod fishing grounds and a sheltered harbour made Salvage attractive to migratory fishermen from Europe. Basque fishermen are believed to have given the place the name Salvaje, which later became Salvage.
By the 1670s English fishermen were using Salvage, Barrow Harbour, and Little Harbour. Permanent settlement grew in the late 1700s and early 1800s, with families from the English West Country, including names still connected to the area: Lane, Babstock, Dyke, Brown, Oldford, Burden, Hunter, Moss, Squire, Heffern, Hapgood, Matchim, and King.
A Community Connected by Sea
Today Salvage can feel like the end of the road on the Eastport Peninsula. Historically, it was centrally located in Bonavista Bay. Before the modern road was completed in the late 1950s, travel and trade were largely by boat. Schooners carried people, mail, news, supplies, and fish products between Salvage, nearby communities, and larger centres such as Greenspond, Bonavista, Glovertown, and St. John's.
The Lane/Heffern House
The museum is also known as the Lane/Heffern House. The original house was likely built in the 1860s and later expanded for Charles and Adelaide Lane. Their son, Maxwell Lane, grew up in Salvage and became a magistrate, Member of the House of Assembly, and provincial cabinet minister. Wilfred and Ida Heffern later lived in the house with their family before helping transform it into a community museum.
1860s
The original house is built.
1880s-1890s
The Lane family lives in and expands the house.
1940s
The Heffern family moves into the house.
1969
The house opens as the Salvage Fisherman's Museum, one of Newfoundland and Labrador's oldest community museums.
Today
The museum preserves intergenerational stories, traditional skills, maritime knowledge, and the everyday life of fishermen and their families.
Change in the 20th Century
Roads, electricity, telephones, refrigeration, and fish plants changed daily life in Salvage after Confederation. The cod moratorium in 1992 and the later loss of the local fish plant transformed the community again, but Salvage remains a working fishing place with commercial boats, fishing stages, seasonal residents, and a strong connection to the sea.