The Road to Yesterday Museum in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland and Labrador, is opening a new temporary exhibit on Saturday, July 11, 2026, as part of Museum Day NL. “From Coley’s Point to Ireland: Message in a Bottle” launches at noon and will run until August 3, offering a glimpse into a unique piece of local lore.
The exhibit tells the story of a Pepsi bottle tossed into the ocean off Coley’s Point in the late 1970s. It survived the rough North Atlantic to wash ashore in Ireland, carrying a message that eventually received a reply. The museum, located at 321 Water St. inside the historic Cable Building, is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Operated by the Bay Roberts Heritage Society, the museum is unveiling the exhibit in celebration of Museum Day NL and the start of Historic Places Days, which runs from July 11-25 this year. The national event’s 2026 theme is “Communication Through Place and Time,” and the exhibit aligns with that by showing how a simple message connected two distant shores.
The Cable Building itself has a rich communication history. Built in 1913 by Western Union Telegraph Co., it served as a relay station for trans-Atlantic telegraph cables. During World War II, 75 percent of all trans-Atlantic cable messages passed through the building, and it provided a direct line between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
