Churchill Falls

The Churchill Falls are waterfalls in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. They are located on the Churchill River in the southwestern Labrador region and are named after the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The falls are named after the adjacent water power plant Churchill Falls.

Description

The waterfalls are located in Bowdoin Canyon. In this gorge the river leads us through rapids and overcomes a height difference of 66 meters. The following are the actual waterfalls (75 m ), and finally more rapids ( 158 m). The water is directed from the Smallwood Reservoir to the underground power plant. It flows only rarely down the canyon, if flood prevails; otherwise the river bed in this area is dry.

History

For the indigenous people of the area, the Innu, the waterfalls were a significant landmark. They believed that the sight of her would mean certain death. John MacLean, one of the Hudson 's Bay Company, in 1839, was the first European who discovered the falls. He called it Hamilton Falls, Newfoundland after the Governor Charles Hamilton. They came largely forgotten until Albert Peter Low in 1894 they visited on behalf of the Geological Survey of Canada again to examine the rich iron ore depravity in Labrador and northeastern Quebec.

On behalf of the Water Commission of Québec Wilfred Thibaudeau took in 1915 extensive surveys before and came up with the idea of ​​the enormous hydropower potential could be used for power generation. Until the infrastructure requirements were for even took several decades. The hydropower plant Churchill Falls was built in 1967 and taken from 1971 to 1974 in stages. With a capacity of 5428 MW, it is the second largest power plant in Canada.