A remote jewel of land off the coast of Canada, Fogo Island floats in the northeast corner of the northeast province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the outstretched right fingertip of this continent. The place might be drop-dead gorgeous, but it wasn’t immune to the fate befalling so many small and isolated communities in North America: its one and only industry went into steep decline, and so in turn, did its population. Then about a decade ago, a local returned home, fresh off making a fortune in the tech sector. Her pockets were deep. So was her desire to lift up the place and bring people back. So she unleashed a sort of economic experiment. We took two planes, a long drive and a ferry to reach Fogo Island, and check on the early results.
The saying here goes: you’ll know the Newfoundlanders in heaven; they’ll be the ones who want to go home. And the adage comes to life on Fogo Island, a 90-square-mile patchwork of 10 miniscule fishing villages where clapboard houses the color of jelly beans cling to rock 400 million years old. Among its quirks, Newfoundland has its own time zone, half an hour ahead of the mainland. But wander through Fogo Island’s villages and you might as well set your watch back to the 18th century.
Back then all you needed to get by here was a pig, a potato patch and something called a punt— a small, wooden fishing boat used in pursuit of North Atlantic cod, the species that once kept this place afloat.
Seemingly every structure on the island was built in service of catching and preserving fish. With one gleaming exception. A $40 million, luxury inn. Part edge-of-the-earth destination, part economic-engine-on-stilts, the inn is the brainchild of eighth generation Fogo Islander Zita Cobb. And locals gave her a funny look when she first floated the idea.
Jon Wertheim: What kinda reaction did that get?
Zita Cobb: “Why would anyone come here?” We love this place, but it wasn’t obvious when, you know, there are fancy places in the world that people go. Our assumption is everybody wants to go where it’s warm. (LAUGH)
Jon Wertheim: Someone suggested to us it looked like– a ship.
Zita Cobb: The architecture of the inn was– obviously a topic of much conversation. I think about it as a metaphor. It’s about people from here and people from away. It’s about the future and the past.
The past looms large on Fogo Island. To fully appreciate the inn, even as a metaphor, you have to understand Fogo’s history.
Jon Wertheim: It’s just something.
Zita Cobb took us through dozens of tiny islands that dot Fogo’s waters to a place called Little Fogo Island – and for those keeping track, that’s an island, off an island, off an island. Her ancestors landed here from Ireland and South England. They came for one reason.
Zita Cobb: Fish, fish, and fish.
Jon Wertheim: When you say fish, is it just a given?
Zita Cobb: It’s a given. So when, yes. When we– say fish, we mean cod.
Jon Wertheim: Is it possible to exaggerate the importance of cod to this place?
Zita Cobb: No. It’s not possible, because everything that you need to know about someone from here you can figure it out by just studying that lowly fish. It’s actually quite a noble fish.
Jon Wertheim: A noble fish?
Zita Cobb: It asks very little and gives so much. They exist on almost anything. I mean I think a cod could eat a rubber boot if it had to.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fogo-island-60-minutes-2021-12-12/