Churchill

Town in the province of Manitoba, Canada, situated on Hudson Bay; population (2006) 970. Although the port is ice-free only three months a year, Churchill handles about 500,000 tonnes of grain annually, as well as fuel oil and bulk cargo. It is a major centre for Arctic research, health programmes, and education. The Hudson's Bay Company established a post here and named it for Lord Churchill (later 1st duke of Marlborough).

There is a modern airport here. Railway and harbour facilities were completed in 1931. A military base was established in World War II, and it continued as a rocket-launching site until the early 1960s.

Churchill

The longest river in Labrador, Canada (known as the Hamilton River before 1965); length 970 km/600 mi. It rises as the Ashuanipi, flowing north from Lake Ashuanipi, near the Québec border. It flows through the Smallwood Reservoir, plunges 75 m/245 ft at Churchill Falls to power a large hydroelectric plant, enters Goose Bay and Lake Melville, and empties into the Labrador Sea.

History The river remained unused, except for a Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort Smith (now North West River, on Lake Melville), until the 1950s when iron ore on the Québec–Labrador border brought rail connections and hydroelectric development to the area.

Churchill

River flowing through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada; length 1,600 km/1,000 mi. It rises in Lac La Loche, northwest Saskatchewan, and flows through a series of lakes to Hudson Bay at Churchill, Manitoba. It has a number of hydroelectric plants, which have reduced its flow.

The river's lakes in Saskatchewan include Peter Pond Lake, Churchill Lake, and Lake Île à la Crosse, where the Beaver River joins from the south. In Manitoba are Granville Lake, Southern Indian Lake, and Northern Indian Lake.

History The Churchill has also been known as the Missinipi (‘big river’) and as the English River, because it was a main route long used by fur traders. Its mouth was discovered in 1619 by Jens Munk, but its upper reaches, where Cree and Chipewyan groups hunted, were not explored until the 1770s, when the North West Company established fur posts.