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Since
the 1830's, there has been industrial activity
on the current site of the Blue Heron Paper Mill. At times,
the site has been used as a flour mill, a sawmill, a brick
operation, a woolen mill and a paper mill. The Oregon City
mill as it is today started in 1908 as the Hawley Pulp and
Paper Mill. W.P. Hawley bought the mill and adjacent properties
and eventually installed four paper machines to produce a
variety of paper products including fruit wrap, bread paper,
wrapping paper, toweling, bags and newsprint.
Ownership transferred to the Los Angeles Times as Publishers
Paper Co. and then to Jefferson Smurfit Corporation. The Oregon
City mill led the Pacific Northwest into the reclamation of
old newspapers with a 25 ton/day deinking plant in 1975. Today,
old newspapers and magazines comprise over half our raw materials.
Blue
Heron Paper Co. currently recycles
over 450 tons per day of newsprint, magazines and other paper
and makes a variety of grades of newsprint,
high bright specialty papers
and bag papers.
TIMELINE:
1832 First saw mill in
Oregon was built for Dr. John McLoughlin on Mill Island, one
of three in the Oregon City Falls area
1843
Alanson Beers and George Abernethy of the Methodist Mission
started the Oregon Milling Company on Abernathy Island in
the falls area
1846
McLoughlin built a grist mill next to the saw mill
1865 The woolen mill owned by the Oregon City Manufacturing Company opened with 80 employees. It grew to 250 employees by 1881
1866
The Jacob brothers Isaac and Adolph purchased the Woolen Mill
1866
WW Buck opened the first paper mill in the Oregon Country
at the site of the McLoughlin jail, Third and Water. The mill
ran for less than a year
1889
First long distance electric generation in the US- from Oregon
City to Portland 's Goose Hollow
1893-1895 The Depression closed the flour and brick mill
1908 WP Hawley purchased the mill site and removed the flour milling machinery
1909
March 12th, Hawley Pulp and Paper Co. produced its first paper.
Production was 20 tons per day
1909 The McLoughlin house was moved up the bluff to Seventh and Center
1910
#2 machine was added to manufacture light tissue and fruit
wrap
1912-13
#3 machine was installed. It made fruit wrap and bread paper
1916 #4 machine was built
to manufacture newsprint
1916
The Oregon City woolen mill employed 400 people. It was the
West’s largest woolen mill, producing 1.5-2.0 million
pounds per year
1920’s
The woolen mill employed 500 people
1923
Fire destroyed #1 machine, which was rebuilt in 1924
1928
#4 machine was replaced with a newer one. #4 was the West’s
largest and fastest newsprint machine for many years
1932
The Great Depression closed the woolen mill
1948
February 20th, Hawley Pulp and Paper was purchased
by Times Mirror and the mill became Publishers Paper Company
1950
First mill to use sawmill chips rather than whole logs
1972 First Governor's
Clean Up Pollution (CUP) award was given to the mill for sulfite
mill improvements and effluent water treatment
1975
A 25 t/d deinking plant began operation
1984
Governor's Energy Award and the National Award for Energy
Innovation for the refiner mill heat recovery system
1986
Jefferson Smurfit Corporation purchased Publishers Paper Co.
1988
#1 PM rebuilt into a Beloit Horizontal BelBaie gap former
1989
Deinking plant rebuilt to process magazines, 425 ton/day plant
capacity
1993
Bleaching plant using hydrogen peroxide installed
2000
May Smurfit Stone Container Corporation sold the mill
to its employees and KPS, creating the BLUE
HERON PAPER COMPANY
2005
Blue Heron Paper Company acquired the Pomona, California 100%
recycled newsprint mill from Smurfit Group PLC, creating the
Blue Heron Paper Company of California.
2006
The employees of Oregon City and Pomona bought out KPS creating
Blue Heron Paper Company as a 100% employee owned ESOP.
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