ABOUT US
Mantle board Shoppe was born out of a desire to get more people into the backcountry of Bonne Bay. We wanted the ability to rent, sell and service backcountry equipment that was not available at local shops in Newfoundland. Located in the heart of Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, Bonne Bay South offers backcountry riders a deep and stable maritime snowpack, with an unusually low rider density and easy access to both glades and alpine terrain. Our goal is to provide a mobile board shop that brings cutting edge equipment and technology to the backcountry trail heads in our communities. A community that has been here a long time.
Europeans were slow to settle the west coast of Newfoundland. The British were concentrated on the east coast, and the French were on the Grand Banks. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht gave the French some area on the west coast which was extended in 1783 to the entire coast.
British settlement was spreading, as well. In 1800 the first British settlement in the Bonne Bay area occurred in Woody Point with the establishment of the firm of Joseph Bird. He had an agent and premises to serve the British fishing interests which were principally migratory at this point. When fishermen began to stay during the winter rather than return to England, the pattern for permanent settlement was laid.
By 1904, the French had left the area to pursue fisheries farther up the coast. By this time, Woody Point was bustling. It was considered the capital of the area with banking and customs offices, merchants, and a harbour full of domestic and foreign vessels.
John Roberts and his wife, Emma, together with their four children are considered to be the first settlers of Woody Point. They came in 1849. By 1872, there were 129 families residing in the Bonne Bay area.
In 1873, the Bonne Bay Post Office was established in the home of J.R. Roberts, John Roberts' nephew. This house was one of the first built in the area and is still standing today. It is a blue clapboarded structure on the Shore Road left of the downtown. Plans are being made to restore this house.
Solomon Wilton was the second settler to Woody Point. It was Wilton who donated the land on which the present day Church of the Epiphany was built. A school and parsonage once stood on this spot. These early founding families are laid to rest in the Anglican cemetery on Shore Road.
Interesting to note on February 25, 1876, during a very heavy blizzard, the snow had drifted on the high hills above the houses of Curzon Village. An avalanche gave way above the house of a man named Charles Fawn. It broke up the house and pushed it out onto the ice. Charles, his wife and a young child were killed and buried in the slide. A "servant" who slept in the garret was thrown onto the ice of the bay about 200 yards from where the house stood, but was uninjured. He and others worked to clear away the snow and after some hours found the three bodies. An older Fawn child who had been in the house was still alive. "The dead were decently interred and the little survivor was doing well and in good care," reported the newspaper. It is unknown where the surviving member of the family or his descendants are located. Avalanches still occur on the steep slopes after heavy snowfalls and drifting. A landslide occurred in 2018 close to the location of where the Fawns residents stood located just off the cul-de-sac at the terminus of Curzon Village.
Owner Operator Ryan Crocker
Ryan Crocker began sledding in the 80s. Like most people who “grew up in the bay” was born with a “throttle under his thumb”. When snowboarding finally made its way to western Newfoundland in the early 90s, the local crew, the Mantle Core Riders(MCR) were among the first to ride snowboards in the backcountry in Bonne Bay. With snowmobile access, they spent more time in the backcountry than at the local resort. Naturally it didn't take Ryan and the MCR crew long to learn where the local riding “gems” were. Some years later and Ryan moved back to Woody Point from Corner Brook to pursue his dream of becoming a backcountry ambassador for the area. Ryan joined the Newfoundland Labrador Snowboarding Association as the Backcountry Ambassador in 2019.
