Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador

Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador

Happy Valley-Goose Bay is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is home to the largest military air base in northeastern North America, CFB Goose Bay. The last NATO nations to use CFB goose Bay for flight training, Germany and Italy, did not renew their leases after terminating in early 2006.

About Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador in brief

Summary Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and LabradorHappy Valley-Goose Bay is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is home to the largest military air base in northeastern North America, CFB Goose Bay. The town is located on the southern shore of a peninsula created by Terrington Basin to the north and Goose Bay at the south. The last NATO nations to use CFB goose Bay for flight training, Germany and Italy, did not renew their leases after terminating in early 2006. The runway at Happy Valley was also an alternate, but unused, landing site for the now-decommissioned NASA space shuttle, because of its size and length. Happy Valley displays a humid continental climate right on the borderline with a subarctic climate, marked by significant snowfall in the winter. The average high temperature stays below freezing for five months of the year.

Summer highs, on the other hand, average 20 °C. Snowfall averages nearly 460 centimetres per year, and occurs in all months except July and August. The population of Happy Valley reached 229 people, mostly workers who serviced the base in 1945, then doubled to 2,861, by 1966, then to 4,215 by 1966. Before amalgamation with Goose Bay, the Local Improvement District of Goose Bay was set up in 1970 and included an area called Spruce Park and the Canadian Department of Transport Housing areas. It was not until 1955 that it eventually was renamed Happy Valley. The Grenfell Mission operated the first medical facilities when it opened a nursing station in 1951. In 1963, the provincial government built Paddon Memorial Hospital. It has been home to an Anglican, Pentecostal, and two Catholic churches.