Churchill Falls is a high

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

on the Churchill River in

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

, Canada. Formerly counted among the most impressive natural features of Canada, the diversion of the river for the

Churchill Falls Generating Station The Churchill Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric underground power station in Labrador. At 5,428 MW, it is the sixteenth largest in the world, and the second-largest in Canada, after the Robert-Bourassa generating station in northwe ...

has cut off almost all of the falls' former flow, leaving a small stream winding through its old bed and trickling down the rocks.

Names

John McLean John McLean (March 11, 1785 – April 4, 1861) was an American jurist and politician who served in the United States Congress, as U.S. Postmaster General, and as a justice of the Ohio and U.S. Supreme Courts. He was often discussed for t ...

called the cascades the , as the Churchill River at that time was usually still known as the Grand River as a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...

of its

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

name. The Innu had a separate name for the falls, ''Patshishetshuanau'' ("Place where the Current Makes Clouds"). Captain William Martin's 1821 renaming of the river after Labrador's colonial governor Charles Hamilton gradually became more common but the falls continued to be known as the "Grand Falls" or less often as the On 1 February 1965, the provincial premier Joey Smallwood renamed the river and the falls after the former

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

ahead of approving its large hydroelectric project.

History

The falls were a significant landmark for local Indigenous peoples. The Innu believed that to look on these awe-inspiring falls meant death and maintained a strong taboo against visiting into the early 20th century. In 1839, a team led by Scoto-Canadian trader

seeking a

navigable A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and calm enough for a water vessel (e.g. boats) to pass safely. Such a navigable water is called a ''waterway'', and is preferably with few obstructions against di ...

route between

Fort Chimo Kuujjuaq (; iu, ᑰᑦᔪᐊᖅ, i=no or iu, ᑰᔾᔪᐊᖅ, i=no, label=none, "Great River"), formerly known as and by other names, is a former Hudson's Bay Company outpost at the mouth of the Koksoak River on Ungava Bay that has become ...

in northwest Labrador and Fort Smith on

Lake Melville Lake Melville is an estuary of Hamilton Inlet (itself an extension of Groswater Bay) on the Labrador coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Comprising and stretching inland to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, it forms part of th ...

in southeast Labrador for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

were the first Europeans to discover the area. McLean was mostly annoyed that the falls presented an obstacle to a direct river route and meant retracing his path back north, but he was still overwhelmed by the falls' majesty.. Fifty years later, the unmapped falls were sought as part of an 1891 scientific expedition to Labrador consisting of alumni and faculty from Bowdoin College in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

. On July 26 a four-man party embarked in canoes heading westward from the expedition's schooner ''Julia Decker'', but injury forced two of them to turn back. Austin Cary and Dennis Cole continued onward; after a 300 mile trek they reached the falls by foot on August 13. In 1894,

Albert Peter Low Albert Peter Low (May 24, 1861 – October 9, 1942) was a Canadian geologist, explorer and athlete. His explorations of 1893–1895 were important in declaring Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic, and eventually defining the border between Quebec ...

of Canada's

Geological Survey A geological survey is the systematic investigation of the geology beneath a given piece of ground for the purpose of creating a geological map or model. Geological surveying employs techniques from the traditional walk-over survey, studying outc ...

reached the falls. Plans were made as early as 1915 to divert the river above the falls for power generation, but they were abandoned as unfeasible at the time. Following the development of the iron ore mines in western

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

and the construction of the

Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway The Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway is a private Canadian regional railway that stretches through the wilderness of northeastern Quebec and western Labrador. It connects Labrador City, Labrador, with the port of Sept-Îles, Quebec, on the ...

in 1954, the project became workable and surveys and planning began. The

started construction in 1967 and, in 1970, almost all of the Churchill's water was diverted into a reservoir upstream of the falls. Only a small stream remains; even when the reservoir hits its maximum water levels, usually a once-a-decade event, the controlled release over the falls amounts to only about 10% of the falls' former flow.

Legacy

The nearby company town of

Churchill Falls Churchill Falls is a high waterfall on the Churchill River in Labrador, Canada. Formerly counted among the most impressive natural features of Canada, the diversion of the river for the Churchill Falls Generating Station has cut off almo ...

is named for the falls.

References

Bibliography

* .

External links