On the morning of Monday, February 3, 1868, the men of Upper Island Cove set out for the woods, nine miles away, to cut firewood. It was a bright, clear winter's day and not too frosty. Some had dogs and catamarans, some had horses and sleds. It was a chore they did all winter, and that winter was a hard one. Many families in the Cove were already short of food.
By midday the wind had come around to the northeast, and the snow came with it, the worst storm anyone could remember. Most of the men made it home, some by losing the road and finding another way. Others were caught out on the Black Marsh. They cut their ponies loose from the harness to give them a chance, threw the wood off the catamarans, and let the dogs haul them home.
John Coombs was about 43 and a strong man, but he was no match for that wind and frost on the way home. His horse was found alive the next day, still hitched to the sled of wood, and he was found close by. Two of his teenage children, Mary and Richard, had gone to Harbour Grace that day. It took six days to find them.
Four more from the Cove were lost on the road home from Harbour Grace: Joseph Drover, Joseph Hussey, Grace Lundrigan and Jane Mercer. About thirty people died in that storm between Heart's Content and Harbour Grace. The newspapers in St. John's carried the news all that week, until everyone had been found. Those from the Cove are buried in Bexley Hill Cemetery, and all five of those family names are still in Upper Island Cove today.
For generations after, people around Conception Bay called a wicked stormy day a Coombs' Day, or said it was as dirty as Coombs' Day. In the Cove they still say it. People were saying it again in the big storm of January 2020.
The Town has put up a sign telling the story out by the Long Shore lookout, in a meadow with a lovely view, blueberries to pick and a walking trail. It's well worth the stop if you're ever in the Cove.