In the late 1800's entrepreneur and inventor, Thomas Willson, accidently discovered an economically efficient process for creating calcium carbide which is used in the production of acetylene gas. He set out to promote new uses of this gas, and soon acetylene lamps were brightly lighting streets, home and mines. Thomas 'Carbide' Willson profited, and the summer house he built on Meech Lake is maintained and used today by the Canadian government. 

For his second great venture he built a secret laboratory on the river feeding Meech Lake, hoping to use hydro-electric power to condense phosphoric acid for use in fertilizer. This venture failed, but the ruins of his lab are still there. Acetylene is still used today, and Willson's dream of building a hydro-electric power plant in Labrador finally came to fruition many years after his untimely death.