Clarenville
Clarenville is a town on the east coast of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Clarenville was incorporated in 1951. It is located in the Shoal Harbour valley, fronting an arm of the Atlantic Ocean called Random Sound. The town grew in importance after it became a junction on the Newfoundland Railway, where a branch line to the Bonavista Peninsula left the main line. The construction of the Trans-Canada Highway through the community in the 1960s resulted in it becoming a local service centre for central-eastern Newfoundland, serving 96,000 people living in 90 communities within a 100 km radius. Clarenville is centrally located and within two hours' driving time of 70% of the province's population. The town is a natural gateway to the Discovery Trail, extending down the Bonavista Peninsula to Trinity and Bonavista, reputed site of the first landing of European explorer John Cabot. The trail is a panorama of scenery, historic sites, coastal towns and villages. TAT-1 (the first transatlantic telephone cable) was laid between Clarenville and Gallanach Bay, Oban between 1955 and 1956 by the cable ship Monarch. Geography Clarenville is near the centre of three peninsulas: Avalon, Burin, and Bonavista. Route 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) and Route 230 pass through the town, linking Clarenville to the Bonavista Bay area and to the rest of the provincial road network. The Clarenville area has many of the physical features characteristic of the East Coast of Newfoundland and has a marine climate. It lies along the coastal slopes which rise from the Atlantic Ocean towards the interior central plateau of the island. The dominating physical feature is a ridge of broken peaks which rise to heights up to 152 meters above sea level parallel to the coast line. Bare Mountain, with an elevation of 156 meters above sea level, dominates the skyline in the northern part of the town. This ridge falls sharply towards the sea so that its coastal edge is characterized by moderate to severe slopes. Towards the southern part of Clarenville, the ridge is broken by a series of valleys which have cut their way through from the coast. The most notable of these is the valley formed by the Lower Shoal Harbour River and Dark Hole Brook and their seaward extension of Lower Shoal Harbour, a shallow and narrow indentation of the sea marked by small rock islands and tidal mud flats. The flats surrounding the river are marshy and subjected to flooding during spring runoff. The river serves as the main drainage course for the area behind the coastal ridge. Clarenville has developed in a narrow strip between the coastal ridge and the sea. The average width of the corridor is between 450 and 600 meters. Located at the most westerly end of an in-drift called Random Sound, extending 25 km inland behind Random Island. As probably the deepest, best sheltered, ice-free port on Newfoundland's east coast, Clarenville is suited for commercial shipping and recreational boating. History There is no definite