Bishop's Falls

Bishop's Falls, NL, incorporated as a town in 1961, population 3341 (2011c), 3399 (2006c). The Town Bishop's Falls is situated on the Exploits River in central Newfoundland. The waterfalls, for which the community is named, were so designated after they were visited by Bishop John Inglis in the 1820s. It was settled by 1900 and a pulp mill and an electric-generating station (both built by British papermaker Albert E. Reed) were operating there by 1911. A decade later when the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co obtained the timber rights for their paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor 15 km upstream, a flume was built through which local pulp was pumped (until 1952) to be manufactured into newsprint. From the early 1920s and through the next 5 decades Bishop's Falls was a principal depot for the Newfoundland Railway (later Canadian National Railway). After the railway closed in 1988, Bishop's Falls economy diversified into light manufacturing and tourism.