Early Settlement and Founding
The earliest signs of habitation in the Port Hope Simpson area are marks dating from 1773 carved in a rock known as the "stamp from our past" when a few inhabitants were wintering at various places on Alexis and Gilbert Bays.
Job Notley and his family were the first permanent inhabitants in the locality living on an island at Light Tickle, to the east of the townsite and in 1884 a census recorded eight persons living at Alexis River. Life was at a subsistence level based on fishing, trapping and hunting. Any timber cut from the dense coniferous woods in the area was limited to building log shacks, trestles, furniture, komatiks and firewood.
It was not until 1934 that Port Hope Simpson was founded as a logging town by John Osborn Williams, owner of the Labrador Development Company, which set-up a pitwood cutting and exporting operations on the present townsite. He was supported in his venture by Sir John Hope Simpson, Commissioner of Natural Resources and Acting-Commissioner of Justice 1934-36. Simpson had agreed to Williams's offer that the settlement should be named after himself. This left the Commission and the British Government open to accusations of favouritism in their dealings with Williams. The government soon regretted the business relationship with Williams when it discovered that British taxpayers' money had been borrowed under false intentions.
The first Post Office was established on October 21st 1950. The first Postmaster was Hayward Green. At the time, the population was 311.
Read more about this topic: Port Hope Simpson, History
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