Churchill River flows through the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in eastern Canada. The chief river on the Labrador Peninsula, it flows east for about 600 miles (970 kilometers) and empties into Lake Melville, part of Hamilton Inlet on the Atlantic Ocean. The river originates as the Ashuanipi River at Ashuanipi Lake on the Quebec border. Churchill Falls (formerly Grand Falls) is about 220 miles (354 kilometers) from the mouth of the river.
The river was called the Hamilton River until 1965, when it was renamed to honor Sir Winston Churchill, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom. The Churchill Falls Generating Station, at Churchill Falls, is one of the largest underground hydroelectric power plants in North America. It has a capacity of more than 5 million kilowatts of electric power.
