Well, here it is, as hinted on our social media yesterday: Gord Pike’s compendious ‘Quodlibets’ columns, digitized in full. Gord Pike serialized the history of his hometown and the Baccalieu Trail (Conception Bay North and Trinity Bay South) from 1988-2000; these short articles found a home in The Compass, the region’s local newspaper, and provided a fascinating glimpse of the area’s long history. Gord’s ‘Quodlibets’ series featured over 300+ columns!

In addition to this long-running series, Gord maintained a very active interest in his community, Harbour Grace, where he served several terms on municipal council, chaired the town’s historical society, and maintained a rigorous heritage designation program. He helped guide various community research and restoration projects, such as the Bennett’s Lane Roman Catholic Cemetery and, memorably, the Harbour Grace Railway Station, which was converted to a museum that still bears his name.

Note on the formatting: For the most part, each article has a text PDF and JPG copy. The PDFs are simply the text of each article. The JPGs have been scanned in 600 dpi and feature the original clippings from The Compass, with pictures, captions, etc., when present. For the the text PDFs, simply click the hyperlink of the title (that is, the bit in quotation marks). For the clippings in JPG format, click “Original”; or if the article had to be spliced into sections due to sizing, click on the various “parts.” There may be some errors right now, as this digitization was just finished. (The formatting may change later.) Also, some original clippings are skewed due to the materials themselves, some of which were unevenly pasted to paper backing.

Visit our ‘Resources’ tab  or the Town of Harbour Grace’s website to peruse this virtual feature:

• Link: ‘Quodlibets’: Histories by Gord Pike (1988-2000)

✅ That’s your weekend reading sorted.

Enjoy and please share!

Gord Pike’s map of the Baccalieu Trail (Conception Bay North & Trinity South).