St. Johns, Newfoundland
The oldest Eurocentric city in the U.S. is St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565. The oldest Eurocentric city in North America is St. John’s, found on maps since 1519. The city has a rich history, having played a role in the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812.
My wife, Sue, joined me here for 3 days and we managed to see Signal Hill, Cape Spear Lighthouse and the coast north of the city. Cape Spear Lighthouse is on the eastern most part of North America.
We also managed to see Manuel’s River Hibernaria Interpretation Centre, the MUN botanical garden, and take a boat ride to see birds and whales. I saw the spout from a Fin whale (second largest whale after the Blue Whale) but I had to take their word for it. We saw some puffins but I only managed to get a picture of the common murre or common guillemot, a cousin of the extinct Great Auk. The fossil trilobite is a species found on both sides of the Atlantic (Newfoundland and Wales), the fossils being separated when North America split away from Europe. I had heard of the Wollemi Pine that was first found in 1994 in Australia. Before that, it was only known from 90 million year fossils. This garden apparently got a seed from Australia.
