The Pulp & Paper Industry

The Pulp and Paper Industry. . As Sheet Harbour's lumber industry prospered in the nineteenth century, there was a growing demand for ground wood pulp, which was used in the manufacture of paper products such as newsprint., Local lumber baron William Chisholm answered this demand by establishing Canada's first sulphite pulp mill, the Halifax Wood Fibre Company, at Sheet Harbour. Built one mile down the East River from the Cascade Mill of William Chisholm and Company, the sulphite pulp mill produced the first ground wood pulp in January 1885., Spruce wood slabs from Chisholm's sawmill were hauled by horse-drawn cars on a tramline to the sulphite pulp mill. After being debarked, the slabs were then chipped. The wood chips were cooked in large vats or digesters with a sulphite solution which separated the fibres of the wood, making it more desirable for producing paper. The chemically treated pulp was air-dried and stacked in 200 lb. bales, then shipped by schooner to Massachusetts. , In the beginning, the operation ran well, producing an average of 8 tons of finished pulp per day, while 25 men laboured in 12-hour shifts. However, in 1890, an American import tariff of $6.00 on pulp made it unprofitable for the mill to produce, forcing its closure in 1891. The abandoned mill eventually burned down and in later years, became the site of the Lewis shipyard and sawmill., Today, the remains of a smokestack, as well as a cairn and commemorative plaque, erected in August 1984, mark the site of Canada's first sulphite pulp mill. , Sheet Harbour's involvement with the pulp and paper industry did not end with the closure of the Halifax Wood Fibre Company. In 1922, the American Perforated Wrapping Paper Company, of Albany, New York, bought the West River mill and lands of Rhodes and Curry, and built a pulp mill there around 1923. Production began in 1925, while the first of 1100 tons of pulp was delivered to the company's mills at Albany, in June 1925. The American Perforated Pulp and Paper Company, powered by newly established hydroelectric stations and dams on the East River, became the Halifax Power and Pulp Company in 1933., In 1964 the mill came under the ownership of the Scott Paper Company, of Philadelphia. A mainstay in the community for a number of years, the Scott mill exported, annually, some 26 000 tons of ground wood pulp to its plants in Chester Pennsylvania, and Mobile, Alabama., By the 1970s, the Scott mill at Sheet Harbour could not compete with larger, more modern pulp and paper mills being built in the province. After experiencing serious damage by Hurricane Beth, in August of 1971, the mill was forced to close. , Today, Sheet Harbour still takes an active part in the pulp and paper industry, as some 250 000 green tons of wood chips, per year, are shipped out of a Sheet Harbour chipping facility, to the pulp and paper industries of Japan., (photo captions) , . Sheet Harbour Mill, c. 1963. (background image) [Dalhousie University Archives] , . Pulp Mill, West River, Sheet Harbour, c. 1963. [Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management] , . Dartmouth Free Press, Wednesday, August 25, 1971. [Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management]