The family names most closely associated with Badger can be traced back to the Paul and Barrington family and it is John Paul that is thought to be the first permanent resident of the town.  John Paul and John Barrington are known to have trapped in the Badger Area.  John Barrington also served as a guide in the 1875 survey for the Newfoundland Railway. 

The area was all wildernesses until about 1894 when the Newfoundland Railway went through.  Soon after, the first railway workers settled here.  Around that same time, lumbering operations commenced and it was initially a source of logs for the Exploits Lumber Company who had a sawmill at Botwood and owned the timber limits,