Corner Brook, Nfld, City, pop 20 103 (2001c), 21 893 (1996c), 22 410 (1991c), area 148.27 km2, inc 1956, is located on Humber Arm of the Bay of Islands on Newfoundland's W coast. The province's second-largest city, it is the amalgamation of 4 towns: Curling, Corner Brook West and East and Townsite. Fishing, farming and lumbering attracted settlers to this hilly, heavily wooded area on fjordlike Humber Arm, which culminates in a deep-water port open year-round to oceangoing vessels. Curling, formerly Birchy Cove, was settled first and by 1864 Corner Brook had a sawmill.
The subsequent growth of Corner Brook and Curling sparked the Newfoundland government's interest in its potential industrial development, and in 1923 the Newfoundland Power and Paper Co, in association with the British Armstrong, Whitworth and Co, was formed. By 1925 the company had constructed a wholly company-owned and planned townsite, a large pulp and newsprint paper mill, and a power plant at nearby DEER LAKE.
In 1938 the mill became the property of the British Bowater-Lloyd firm. The Bowater pulp and paper mill made Corner Brook one of the most prosperous cities in Atlantic Canada. The announcement that the company was leaving Newfoundland at the end of 1984 left the city's future in grave doubt, but the mill was sold to Kruger Inc and became known as Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Ltd.
After Confederation (1949), a gypsum plant, a construction company, a cement plant and 3 fish plants were built, attracting new residents and leading to haphazard growth of the area beyond the townsite until amalgamation under one municipal government in 1956. The modern city of Corner Brook has attracted many other facilities, including Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (1975), the western branch of MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY and Western Memorial Regional Hospital.