Did you know?
Corner Brook is a bustling city located on the west coast of Newfoundland Labrador (NL), which is located on the east coast of Canada. The city’s size and location make it the premier destination for retail, services, recreation, and adventure.
The City of Corner Brook is the largest community in Western Newfoundland, and is the main service centre for the coastline.
The largest employers in the community are Western Memorial Regional Health Care Authority, followed by Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited.
The city is home to three post-secondary education campuses.
There are a wide range of businesses from the industrial suppliers such as the paper mill to professional and personal services.
The provincial and federal governments have a variety of departments in the city; natural resources departments and agencies are a focus with a concentration of forestry, fishery, and agriculture industries on the west coast.
For thousands of years, people have lived and worked along the shores of the Bay of Islands and in the Humber River Valley, taking advantage of the abundant resources and access to water for transportation. The Maritime Archaic first inhabitated the area followed by the Beothuck, who were thought to number between one to two thousand people at the time of European contact. As a result of a complex mix of factors, the Beothuk became extinct in 1829.
James Cook, the famous British cartographer and explorer, was the first to survey and record the geography of the Bay of Islands. Throughout the summer of 1767 he surveyed most of the west coast of Newfoundland, including both sides of the Bay of Islands, the Humber Arm, the present location of the City of Corner Brook, and along the Humber River as far as Deer Lake.
By the middle of the 19th century the population of Corner Brook was less than 100. With each winter, this number increased as many east coast fishermen fished the Strait of Belle Isle in summer and spent the winters working in Corner Brook’s lumber woods. As the population of the area grew, the economic base began to diversify.
The Newfoundland Railway was the major transportation link across the island, and carried passengers and freight between Port aux Basques and St. John’s with frequent stops in Corner Brook.
It was the construction of the pulp and paper mill between 1923 and 1925 that triggered the transformation of Corner Brook from a small but bustling sawmill centre into the largest industrial city in western Newfoundland.
Prior to amalgamation in 1956 the Corner Brook area was comprised of four distinct communities along the shores of the Bay of Islands each with unique commercial activities. These included Curling with its fishery; Corner Brook West (Humber West or Westside) with its retail businesses; Corner Brook East (Humbermouth and the Humber Heights) with its railway operations; and Townsite (Corner Brook), home to the employees of the pulp and paper mill. Today, these four communities form the City of Corner Brook.
