The Bishop’s Falls Pulp Mill

The Bishop’s Falls pulp mill was constructed on the Exploits River by the Albert E. Reed Company of London, which at the time, operated eight paper mills in the south of England. The mill had a capacity of 130 tons of pulp a day. Construction was completed in 1912, and the mill operated as an independent unit until 1928 when it was taken over by The Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company (AND) of Grand Falls. It finally ceased operation in 1952.

The timber limits for the mill were obtained from two companies controlled by Henry J Crowe of Nova Scotia. In 1907, 1369 square miles were acquired from the Newfoundland Pine and Pulp Company and 606 square miles were acquired from the Central Forests Company.

The mill, at least initially, was not profitable because of high construction costs associated with the construction of the power dam. In 1916 the company was considering the addition of a paper mill at Bishops Falls, but this plan was abandoned and instead 1282 square miles of timber limits were transferred to the AND mill at Grand Falls. This company claimed that the mill at Bishop’s Falls was not profitable in itself, but could be operated as an adjunct to the the Grand Falls. It was operated

as a source of pulp for the Grand Falls mill until 1952.

The pulp produced at Bishop’s Falls was moved  to Grand Falls as a slurry, through an underground pipeline. Towards the end of it’s life, in the late 1940’s, this line would occasionally leak and spew liquid pulp to the surface at points through the town, which we youngsters used to make mushy pulp balls to throw at each other and splatter on the sides of various buildings and boxcars. They could also be squeezed and dried in an oven if harder missiles were required.

J. Munro