SITE 7 (OF 7):
Forest Paper Company (by Royal River Park)
Photo Source: Wikipedia (circa 1900)
Forest Paper Company: Yarmouth’s largest mill produced wood pulp for the paper industry. Growing from a modest cluster of wood frame buildings established in 1864, the mill quickly expanded under the ownership of S.D. Warren, producing high quality soda pulp for use in the paper making industry. At its height around 1910, the Forest Paper Company was the largest mill of its kind in the United States, employing 250 workers who daily produced 80 tons of poplar pulp which was shipped to paper mills all over the world. The mill closed in 1923 and burned in a spectacular fire in 1931, leaving the 10-acre site in ruins. Following a massive clean-up effort in the early 1980s, the former mill site is now part of Royal River Park, one of Yarmouth’s most popular parks and the site of many community events.
Fun fact: Mill manager George Hammond built his summer house, Camp Hammond, within sight of the mill around 1889 so that he could keep an eye on operations while he was in residence. It still stands at 275 Main Street.
Bibliography:
Adult (3)
- Arsenault’s Mill Town: Reckoning with what Remains (2020) – no copy at MML, but available in over 50 Minerva libraries
- Hillard’s Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine’s Mighty Paper Industry (2020) – MML has 1 copy; 13 more copies in Minerva
- Kurlansky’s Paper: Paging Through History (2016) – MML has 1 copy; 22 more copies in Minerva
Juvenile (3)
- Jackson’s How is Paper Made? (2016) – no copy at MML, but available in 1 Minerva library
- Macauley’s Mill (1983) – MML has 1 copy, 25 more copies in Minerva
- Marshall’s From Tree to Paper (2003) – no copy at MML, but available in 3 Minerva libraries
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