The Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark is made up of sites all around the Bonavista Peninsula that illuminate the incredible geological and human history of this area. While on your journey of discovery in the park, you can visit fossils of the oldest complex life on earth, see the way that natural forces have shaped the land over hundreds of millions of years, and learn about the remarkable history of this region.
The park is named after the highway route that runs around the Bonavista peninsula—the Discovery Trail. The ‘Discovery’ that this trail acknowledges was that of Zuan Caboto, also known as John Cabot, a Venetian explorer sailing under the auspices of England’s King Henry VII, who is said to have discovered northern North America when his ship the Matthew made landfall near Bonavista in 1497.
More recently, this discovery narrative has been questioned. First and foremost, because we now understand that many Indigenous peoples had arrived on the Island thousands and thousands of years before Europeans, discovering its resources and making it their home. Secondly, because we now know that the Norse had a settlement on the island in the eleventh century, more than three hundred years before Caboto’s ‘discovery’. And finally, because we now have a more complex understanding of the European history of this island: while Caboto may have been among the first of the early modern Europeans to see Newfoundland’s rocky coastline, many different European peoples discovered this place alongside him: the Basques, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch, to name a few.
The Discovery Geopark recognizes of all of these discoveries that helped to shape the complicated and fascinating history of this place. Most of all, we recognize that this park is located within the unceded territory of the Beothuk, an Indigenous people who were devastated by the impacts of colonialism. Today, the peninsula is home to peoples of Mi’kmaw, Innu, Inuit, and European descent who have been here for hundreds of years, and it welcomes newcomers from all over the world who wish to join this community. All of these histories are layered together in this place.
While traditional narratives of discovery name famous men—Zuan Caboto, Leif Eriksson, Corte Real—and credit them with discovery in the name of powerful rulers, we believe that the story of this island is also about the discoveries of ordinary people who have come here over the millennia to build homes, to work, and to explore. Including you. What will you discover?
Discovery Global Geopark invites you to discover a little more about your geological past. Located on the upper half of the Bonavista Peninsula on the eastern coast of the island of Newfoundland, Discovery has a variety of sites where you can tour and learn about the Earth. Discovery is positioned along a series of highways aptly named the “Discovery Trail”, via Route 233 or 230. The geographic region is approximately 3 hours from both Gander and the Argentia ferry, and 3½ hours from the capital city of St. John’s.
Our Founders
