The Corner Brook Museum and Archives occupies a heritage building near the old railway precinct and does a decent job of covering the layers of the city's history. The pulp and paper industry that built modern Corner Brook gets its due, with machinery, photographs, and accounts of the mill workers who came from across Newfoundland and beyond to work here through the 20th century. Indigenous history — the Beothuk and Mi'kmaq peoples who lived in this part of the island — is covered alongside the European settlement story.
The archives are the more specialised resource, useful if you have family connections to western Newfoundland. For the general visitor, allow an hour. The museum is not large, but it is thoughtfully put together and gives real context to the city you are walking through. Combined with the Railway Society next door, it makes for a satisfying half-morning of local history.