The year was 1909, the year before Anne of Green Gables was published. The Liberals were in power with Wilfred Laurier at the helm as prime minister. And in October of that year, at opposite ends of the country, mills were opened.
In Newfoundland the Grand Falls Paper Mill commenced business, and in our corner of the world, a farsighted Henry Augustus Mellon opened what was to become many years later, Howe Sound Pulp and Paper. Mellon was a naval captain and financier born in Nottingham, England in 1840. In 1880 he came to Canada, first to Manitoba where he tried his hand at farming and then in 1886 to Vancouver.
After dabbling in some marine-related pursuits, in 1907 he changed his vocation thanks to an opportune visit of his wife to Aberdeen, Washington. While in Washington, Mrs. Mellon met Greely Kolts, who had been trying unsuccessfully to build a pulp mill in Aberdeen. While there was lots of sawdust for the mill, there was a distinct lack of water to run the mill. Mrs. Mellon was quick to regale Kolts with the abundance of both wood and water in B.C., and soon Kolts came to meet Henry Mellon. And Mellon went on to become a principal investor in the British-Canadian Wood Pulp and Paper Co. That company was the grandfather of the present-day mill. The new mill's name was Pioneer Mills. The first paper was a mixture of the mill's soda pulp with bleached book and waste paper. But it was a less than auspicious beginning - the mill lasted only four months. Fuel (coal) and transportation costs were too high to make the mill viable. The Vancouver real estate slump of 1913 to 1915 claimed much of Mellon's wealth. He died on Valentine's Day the following year.
The area where the new mill was located was a former Squamish Nation village site. Located at the head of the Rainy River on the west side of Howe Sound, the river and the area lived up to its name - wet it was.
But the mill was not the only game in town. Tourism was already a force on the Sunshine Coast, and in 1907 the Seaside Hotel had been built. The establishment remained popular with tourists until midway through the 20th century. As late as the 1960s a pub still operated on the grounds. We'll hear more about this establishment as the story of Howe Sound Pulp and Paper and its people unfolds over this, the mill's centennial year.
In 1912 American investors headed by Lester David of Seattle came to Port Mellon. The new company was known as Colonial Lumber and Paper Mills. Ironically, history tells us the company never operated a pulp mill, and no lumber was milled. In fact, all records point to there being no sawmill.
In 1917 the Port Mellon mill became the property of the Rainy River Pulp and Paper Co. with capital of $1 million (the equivalent of about $15 million today). Headquartered in Vancouver, the mill employed 65 people, and from all accounts only kraft pulp was produced.According to a history of the area written in 1967 (History of Port Mellon 1908 to 1967) the operators worked two shifts, 11-hour day shifts and 13-hour night shifts. There were no part-time replacements so if an operator was sick the other workers filled in. There were no days off and the shifts changed every two weeks.
At the time there was one bunkhouse, recorded in the history book as "a very poor building built on piles out over the water." Not surprisingly, the house wasn't big enough to hold all the employees and some of the operators ended up staying in the mill building itself. The cookhouse was located in an old lime shed in front of the mill. Within a couple of years, a boarding house was built for the employees.The logs used were local second growth. Some were dragged to the mill by a team of four horses; others were brought by water. In 1919 the Rainy River Pulp and Paper Co. went bankrupt, leaving employees in the lurch. In 1920 Western Canada Pulp and Paper Co. Ltd. bought the mill. The company's head office was in Toronto. The company's bank, Home Bank of Canada, failed in 1925 and forced Western Canada into bankruptcy. Home Bank was the last private bank to fail in Canada and the subsequent hue and cry from citizens brought about a commission of inquiry resulting in tightened banking regulations. The receiver as Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Company Ltd. reincorporated the mill.
In 1927 Fred Leadbetter purchased the mill for $250,000, and the name changed to Vancouver Kraft Mills Ltd. In 1929 the mill rated a story in the Vancouver Province. The article extolled the virtues of the new mill including the "natural attractions of Port Mellon." Included in the story was reference to 35 modern dwellings for employees that came to be known in later years as Tar Paper Alley. In 1951 the abodes were pushed into a heap and unceremoniously burned to the ground. Many of the lauded plans in the Province article met with similar fate. And the Great Depression sealed the mill's fate. Prices of kraft plummeted and the company was dissolved in 1940.
Coast Reporter will be featuring stories on the mill each month of 2009. The next article will appear Feb. 27.
