Cook's Harbour is a fishing community located on the Great Northern Peninsula, east of Cape Norman, along the barren rather exposed shores of Neige Bay. The harbour was recorded by Captain James Cook as Cook's Harbour in 1764 and is named accordingly. Cook used the harbour as a place of anchorage while surveying and charting the coastline in and around Newfoundland.

Due to its abundance of excellent beaches and proximity to the coast of Labrador, Cook's Harbour was fished by the French and the English in the 1700 and 1800's, and was likely used as a fishing station. Additionally, it is within the path of the annual seal migration, making it a superior spot for land based seal hunts, and a ship based seal hunt station. By 1951 the population had reached nearly three hundred as families moved from Flowers Cove and the St. Anthony area to live at Cook's Harbour.

The settlement had developed as a supply and marketing depot and fish were brought there from smaller settlements along the coast to be shipped to St. John's. A co-operative had also operated in the community for a short time. Due to poor soil conditions and barren land, there was very little forestry or agriculture; residents maintained that the trees were all cut by early settlers.

The fishery, principally herring and cod, remained the main source of employment in Cook's Harbour, supplemented by seasonal logging, sawmilling and road construction. Cook's Harbour, which was formerly accessible only by sea and supplied by coastal steamers and traders, was linked by road to St. Anthony and Flowers Cove by the early 1970s.