Burgeo

Burgeo, NL, incorporated as a town in 1950, population 1464 (2011c), 1607 (2006c). The Town of Burgeo was a principal fishing and fish-processing centre on the southwest coast of insular Newfoundland until the cod moratorium was put in place in 1992. The name is a corruption of Virgeo ("a thousand virgins," referring to the 11 000 virgins said to be martyred in the 4th or 5th centuries) first applied to the Burgeo Islands. The main part of the community is on 2.5 km long Grandy Island, connected to the mainland by a causeway. Settled since the late 1700s, the community's only link with the rest of Newfoundland was by sea until 1979, when a road connected Burgeo to the Trans-Canada Highway. With its main industry gone, the town is struggling to survive.