We welcome you to one of the oldest settlements in Newfoundland. We are proud of our ancestors who were industrious, brave and hard-working men and women. Explore our towns and communities, sail in our fishing boats, climb our headlands, stroll our beaches, and talk with our friendly people, who will surely give you a real Fogo Island welcome. 
            Fogo Island is twenty-one miles long, and fourteen and a half miles wide at its longest and widest points. There are eleven communities on the Island: Stag Harbour, Little Seldom, Seldom, Deep Bay, Island Harbour, Central, Fogo, Barr’d Islands, Shoal Bay, Joe Batt’s Arm and Tilting with the approximate population being twenty three hundred residents. 
            Fogo Island first appeared on early mariners and explorers maps of Newfoundland in the sixteenth century. Early nomenclature of the island includes Aves or Birds Island, Penguin Island, Ansphat or Isle d’ Oiseaux. Its current name appears on an early sixteenth century map as Y de Fogo, later anglicized to Fogo Island. Fogo Island was a part of the Poole Empire and thus directly or indirectly was settled by persons from regions not far from Poole, Dorset in England. Settlers also migrated from the Southern Bays of Newfoundland including Trinity Bay, as well as from England and the South West of Ireland. The earliest reported settler on Fogo Island was that of Pere Baudein, who reported in his 1697 journal one hundred and fifty men living on Fogo Island, Twillingate and other scattered populations in the northern part of Newfoundland. Captain Vanburg reported in 1738 journal that Fogo Island had two hundred and fifteen inhabitants. By 1865 the population of Fogo Island had drastically increased to two thousand four hundred and sixty inhabitants.
            England based firms such as Slade and Company were well established by the late 1700’s on Fogo Island. Eleven men worked directly for Slade in the community of Fogo. Many residents of Fogo Island are direct descendants of these eleven men.
            Like their ancestors, the majority of the Fogo Island inhabitants fished cod for a living. Today however, the Fogo Island fisherman fish for a greater number of species as well as use different methods to catch them than their forefathers. This is not to say that some traditional fishing methods are not retained, for example, the ‘cod trap’ is still used as it was centuries ago. On Fogo Island, the visitor can still experience the traditional way of life as our Island is steeped in tradition. Fogo Island offers a window into our past as well as showcasing our future.