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The Mill is Closed
4 August 2005
Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada


Credits:
Bathurst Heritage Museum

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The history of using the forest goes back as far as mankind existed. The primary use then was for shelter, warmth and cooking. The First Nation People, the Mi'gmaq, made many things with the use of the forest products, one of which was the famed birch-bark canoe. Europeans came to the area in the 16 Century and made use of the forest for trade. One of the earlier traders was Nicolas Denys. Later Commodore Walker, followed by the Rankins and Cunards, established trading centers in the Bathurst area. Bathurst became an important shipbuilding port. Sawmills were established and by the turn of the 20th Century, two major mills were operating in the Bathurst area. A young man with great ambitions, Angus L. McLean, bought the two mills which became the building block for the establishment of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Bathurst. Construction of the mill began in 1914 and went into production in 1915. The first newsprint produced in the Maritimes was a great accomplishment for the Bathurst Company in 1923. The Company would eventually change over its production to meet World War II demands for boxboard. The Bathurst company became leaders in the packaging field. By the 1960s, the firm was producing "from forest to mill to package." The Bathurst Company would merge with Consolidated and the merger would bring great expansion to the mill in the 1980s. In 1989, a Chicago based company would take over the Bathurst company and would close the mill in 2005.