Churchill Falls

Churchill Falls
Grand Falls
Churchill Falls as it appeared in 2008, four decades after the water was redirected.
Location	Labrador
Coordinates	53°35′39.44″N 64°18′28.05″W / 53.5942889°N 64.3077917°W / 53.5942889; -64.3077917
Type	Segmented Block
Total height	245 ft (75 m)
Watercourse	Churchill River

Churchill Falls is a waterfall named after former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. They are 245 ft (75 m) high, located on the Churchill River (before 1965 the Hamilton River, the falls being named Grand Falls) in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

4 mi (6.4 km) above the falls, the Churchill River narrowed to 200 ft (61 m) and negotiated a series of rapids before dropping into MacLean Canyon, from which sheer cliffs rise several hundred feet on either side. The river flowed 12 mi (19 km) through the canyon over a series of rapids. The total drop from the rapids above the main falls to the end of MacLean Canyon is 1,038 ft (316 m).

Since 1970, the waters of the Churchill River have been diverted into the nearby Churchill Falls hydroelectric power station. Today water flows down the falls less than once a decade, during spring thaw or periods of exceptional rains. The Churchill Falls power station has the third largest hydroelectric-generating capacity in North America (5,428 MW or 7,279,000 hp installed, expandable to about 6,300 MW or 8,400,000 hp) and is also the second largest underground power station in the world, after the Robert-Bourassa generating station in northern Quebec.

The falls were a significant landmark for local aboriginal peoples; the Montagnais-Naskapi believed that to look on these awe-inspiring falls meant death. In 1839, John McLean became the first non-Aboriginal to reach Churchill Falls. McLean was a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company and he named the river the Hamilton River after the Newfoundland Governor, Sir Charles Hamilton. The falls were then largely forgotten until 1894 when Albert Peter Low of the Geological Survey of Canada reached the Grand Falls (as they were known) during his study of the large number of iron ore deposits in western Labrador and northeastern Quebec. The name of the river and falls was changed to the Churchill River and Churchill Falls in 1965 to honour the former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.