Drowned Forest

by Conrad Nickerson

The Hawk is a place located at the very end of Cape Sable Island. It is the most southeast point of Canada's Atlantic Coastline. The Hawk is a small community, and it is a beautiful, quiet place to live. Most people from The Hawk are fishermen.

A long time ago there was a ship named the Hawk, it was shipwrecked on the rocky beach, that was the reason the people named the village The Hawk. Mostly The Hawk is famous because of the Drowned Forest. It has been known that tourists come from far away lands to visit the Drowned Forest. Tourists that have visited the Drowned Forest are really amazed.

The history I have heard from older people about the Drowned Forest is that at one time Cape Sable Island had a beach made of sand cliffs 40 m above high water mark.

New Englanders brought over around 1000 sheep or more to The Hawk, and they were allowed to roam freely; this disturbed the natural vegetation and the beach started to disappear and expose the Drowned Forest. They say when sheep eat grass, they pull the roots out, and this causes the grass not to grow back. These stumps and the Drowned Forest are visible when the tide is really low. The fossil tree stumps are still rooted in the original soil. The trees are about 100 years old. Back then, the sea level was about 3 m lower than it is today.

Also man-made fences are visible when the tide is low. Tourists and even people from this area can spend hours exploring the Drowned Forest and the beautiful beaches.