The Bay of Islands, located on the west coast of Newfoundland is composed of four main parts: an open bay, dotted with about twelve islands, for which the bay was named, and three large arms North Arm, Middle Arm and the Humber Arm, into which the Humber River empties. Because of glacial scouring of the area, the waters of the arms are quite deep and their banks are steep. Settlement on the shores of the Bay of Islands has always been concentrated in the southern Humber Arm, where, at first, salmon fisheries attracted immigrants. Later the development of the herring fisheries and saw milling attracted more settlers and finally the large pulp and paper industry was established in Corner Brook in 1925.

The Maritime Archaic Indians occupied the area approximately 9,000 years ago, and later the Beothuk became known as the area’s indigenous people, although they were extinct in the area after 1829. In 1768 when Captain James Cook surveyed the west coast of Newfoundland there was no settlement at Corner Brook, and year round settlement by either French or the English settlers was prohibited by the terms of the Treaty of Paris which determined settlement along the entire French Shore which included the Bay of Islands. By the early 1800's, however , fishing, farming and later lumbering opportunities had attracted white settlers to the Birchy Cove area (later called Curling) which until the 1920's remained the most prominent community in the area. Corner Brook named for the stream which water flowed from low-lying hills into the Humber Arm, was chosen as the site of a sawmill by a Nova Scotian named Gary Silver who began construction of the mill in 1864. In 1881, Christopher Fisher, who moved to Corner Brook from Nova Scotia became owner of the mill.

In 1923, partly as a result of the efforts made by Prime Minister Sir Richard Squires, the Newfoundland Power and Paper Company Limited was formed, with the British firm of Armstrong, Whitworth and Company holding the majority of the shares. That year Christopher Fisher sold his mill to the company, whose contract (backed by both the British and Newfoundland governments) called for the construction of a pulp and newsprint paper mill, and a planned town, at Corner Brook and a Power house at Deer Lake.

Townsite, as the engineers first called the residential section, was owned by the paper company, which was responsible, not only for constructing the houses and roads, but also for supplying water, sewerage, telephones, doctors and other services and facilities. The automatic telephone system installed in 1925 was the first of its kind in Newfoundland or Canada. While Townsite was well planned and had all the amenities, it was not big enough to accommodate the great influx of people who came to work in the mill and set up businesses in the new community. As well, many preferred to build their own houses more cheaply on the land around Townsite. The result was the haphazard grouth of Corner Brook East and Corner Brook West on either side of Townsite. There was no control over building structures, roads or sanitary requirements, and raw sewage in these communities result in outbreaks of typhoid. After two years of less then full-capacity operation the Corner Brook mill and power station at Deer Lake were sold to another newly-formed company which included the American Firm, the International Paper Company of New York. The mill and power station were enlarged and the Corner Brook communities continued to grow, so that by the beginning of the 1930's the population of the area from Curling on the west to Humbermouth on the east had reached 10,000.

The mill was sold again in 1938 to the British company, Bowater-Lloyd, which acquired additional timber rights at the same time. This company continued to be responsible for Townsite, but around it, as the population grew, conditions deteriorated. In 1942, as a result of public meetings and a petition to the Commission of Government, Corner Brook West became incorporated. In 1947 Curling, and in 1948 Corner Brook East followed suit. Until 1952 Townsite was governed by six councillors appointed by Bowaters and thereafter three of the six were publicly elected. In 1949 representatives of the four councils met with Premier J.R. Smallwood and the Humber Municipal Association was formed. This joint committee of the four councils commissioned a study to determine the best form of administration for the area, and another to investigate the problem of schooling. It also called the first convention of Newfoundland municipalities, at which the Newfoundland Federation of Municipalities was formed. The Humber Municipal Association and the Goldenberg Report (a survey of municipal problems, financed by Bowaters) both recommended amalgamation as the solution to the uneven development of the area and the water, road, sewerage and other problems.

In April of that year the Newfoundland legislature passed the City of Corner Brook Act and several months later a mayor and council were elected. In 1956, at the official opening of City Hall, Sir Eric Bowater presented the City of Corner Brook with a Mayor’s Chain, the Mace and the Grant of the Arms from the College of Heralds in England.

By 1967 the population of Corner Brook had grown to over 25,000 and it was the industrial, commercial and cultural center of western Newfoundland. Besides the pulp and paper mill, a cement plant, a gypsum plant, a construction company and three fish-processing plants had been established. A sanitorium, originally built to house tuberculosis patients, had been renovated and amalgamated with the Western Memorial Hospital. A large Arts and Culture Center had been completed by 1967 and contained a 400 seat theatre, an Olympic sized pool and other facilities. In 1975 Memorial University of Newfoundland built a campus in Corner Brook, the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College. In 1997 the vocational school was expanded and came under the provincial umbrella of the College of the North Atlantic.

Because of its size and location, Corner Brook has also been the distribution, transportation, and service center for approximately 150,000 people in central and western Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the location of the western regional government offices and the regional center for medical facilities, distribution, education, transportation and industrial and commercial resources.

By George R. French,
Archivist
Corner Brook Museum and Archives

Copyright Corner Brook Museum and Archives 2002
Reprinted with Permission - 2005

 

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