EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine — East Millinocket is known as “the town that paper made.” It was born with the mill, lived for generations because of it and then withered as the plant slowly downsized and, in 2010, choked to a halt.
It was an agonizing decline. The population shrank by more than a third over the course of a decade, and many of those who stayed went elsewhere to work; the headlights on the road to Bangor, 65 minutes south, begin streaming at 3:30 in the morning. Many didn’t find work at all. And with a mill-sized hole in its tax base, the town couldn’t fund or fix its schools. Everything was tied to the mill, and mills that make paper for reading do not reopen in America. But then this one did.
Comments
Good story o how capitalism and sensibility have created (saved?) 200 or so 19th century type jobs. Would like to hear more stories like this over the next 2+ years...
Cyr wanted to fire up one of the two gigantic papermaking machines again, if the union and the town would let the company do it for less money
Wow. The place was shut down....and even then, when trying to restart it, the union (which helped put it out of business) has to be considered...
Crazy...