Making Paper- Environment


Two boom bags, Ambajejus, ca. 1955

Two boom bags, Ambajejus, ca. 1955
Item 23070   info
Ambajejus Boom House Museum

Two boom bags are being worked with. The one in the foreground is ready to be towed to North Twin Dam. The second boom bag is being filled at the mouth of the Ambajejus. Each boom bag would transport 3500 - 4000 cords of pulp wood. Ambajejus Point is in the background.

Forest Paper Co. smokestacks, Yarmouth, ca. 1900

Forest Paper Co. smokestacks, Yarmouth, ca. 1900
Item 67659   info
Yarmouth Historical Society

Workers on rotating shifts produced soda pulp for making paper 24 hours a day.

The process included slicing poplar logs into small chips that were put into large digesters that pressure cooked them. Soda or lye was added at high heat to reduce the chips to pulp. The pulp was then strained or dried and sent off to papermakers all over the world.

Aerial View of Eastern Fine Paper, Brewer, 1930

Aerial View of Eastern Fine Paper, Brewer, 1930
Item 69702   info
Maine Folklife Center, Univ. of Maine

This aerial view of Eastern Fine Paper shows how large the complex was by 1930. Note the location of Eastern on the Penobscot River.

The photographer of this photo is unidentified.

Pulp Mill, Skowhegan, ca. 1900

Pulp Mill, Skowhegan, ca. 1900
Item 9048   info
Skowhegan History House

"Taken from pier in river, looking east. Old Farwell residence may be seen high on bank at left, now occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Harold C. Woodbury.

A glimpse of water pouring over Skowhegan dam may be seen at right. Top of Kidder mill shows over the pulp building. Chimney at left was built by H. C. Purinton & Company, of Waterville. During its construction ten feet in elevation was built in one day. This was supposed to be a record in structures of this character.

The pulp mill in this picture, the Kidder mill and the buildings beyond are now occupied by the Daniel E. Cummings Company.

~Roland T. Patten, Custodian of Historical View, 1929"

Henry A. Wyman Collection

Great Northern Paper Co., Millinocket, ca. 1930

Great Northern Paper Co., Millinocket, ca. 1930
Item 6609   info
Maine Historical Society

This Great Northern mill is in Millinocket, along the Penobscot River. The mill began construction in 1898 and three years later, the town of Millinocket incorporated.

Fraser Co. paper mill, Madawaska, ca. 1925

Fraser Co. paper mill, Madawaska, ca. 1925
Item 6826   info
Maine Historical Society

This photographic postcard shows the Fraser Co. paper mill in Madawaska. The writing on the postcard misspells the name of the company as "Frasier."

The mill opened in about 1925, part of Donald Fraser's wood products business in the Canadian Maritimes.

Eastern Illustrating Co., which made the postcard, which began in Belfast in 1909, had photographers who traveled around the state taking images of towns and cities and producing "real photo" postcards.

Pejepscot Paper Company,  ca. 1900

Pejepscot Paper Company, ca. 1900
Item 10604   info
Maine Historical Society

The double photograph is labeled "Pejepscot Paper Company" and was taken about 1900. Pejepscot had mills in Topsham, Pejepscot Village, and Lisbon Falls.

Muskie Clean Water Bill cartoon, 1971

Muskie Clean Water Bill cartoon, 1971
Item 25722   info
Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

A political cartoon drawn by John Fawcett of the Providence Evening Bulletin shows President Richard Nixon, attempting to water down the Clean Water Bill and Sen. Edmund Muskie, a Maine Democrat, trying to serve it "straight up."

Muskie was the author of the bill and shepherded it through Congress.

Casco Bay pollution, 1970

Casco Bay pollution, 1970
Item 25725   info
Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

Richard Gosse, a Portland dentist with the U.S. Public Health Service in Portland, wrote to Senator Edmund Muskie, expressing his concern about pollution in the Presumpscot River and the S.D. Warren Paper Co. He enclosed this photo of the pollution, taken March 27, 1970 behind the U.S. Public Health Service Outpatient Clinic.

He noted that the Presumpscot River is flowing into Casco Bay with Mackworth Island to the left, just out of the photo.

He said some of the debris visible in the photo was due to a heavy rainstorm on March 26, but that much of it is paper company pollution.

Gosse expressed concern that the City of Portland did not appear to be taking action about the pollution issue and that the mayor called it a "political issue."

William Chisholm letter to Sen. Muskie, 1971

William Chisholm letter to Sen. Muskie, 1971
Item 25767   info
Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

William H. Chisholm, vice chairman of the board of the Kennebec River Pulp & Paper Co. in Madison, wrote to Maine Sen. Edmund S. Muskie about his concerns about the so-called "Muskie Bill."

Chisholm called the "no pollutant discharge" provision an "economic disaster for the country."

He expressed hope that a conference committee would "take a more realistic view" and amend the proposed legislation and expressed surprise that Muskie would support "such an unreasonable goal."

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