In 1908, W. P. Hawley purchased a mill site in Oregon City, Oregon, that had been home to a flour mill, saw mill, woolen mill, and paper mill at various points since it was built in the 1830s.
Hawley Pulp and Paper Company began producing its first paper in 1909 at the rate of 20 tons per day. The following year, Hawley added a second paper-making machine to manufacture light tissue paper and fruit wrap.
Soon thereafter, the company installed a third machine that produced fruit wrap and bread paper. In 1916, a fourth machine that manufactured newsprint came on line.
Throughout the 1920s and even the 1930s, the company continued steadily to produce paper. All of the raw material it used was virgin wood fiber.
In 1923, a temporary setback in production occurred when fire destroyed Hawley's first machine, but the company rebuilt the machine in 1924.
Hawley Pulp and Paper prospered, and, in 1928, it was able to replace its fourth machine with the largest and fastest newsprint manufacturing machine in the westernUnited States.
Then, in 1948, the Los Angeles Times Mirrorpurchased the mill and renamed it, appropriately, Publishers Paper Company.
Under the Times Mirror, the mill pioneered several innovations. In 1950, it became the first paper mill to use sawmill chips rather than whole logs to manufacture paper.
In 1975, it branched out into recycling when it began a 25 ton per day paper de-inking operation, a necessary step in recycling paper.
Smurfit Corporation purchased Publishers Paper Company in 1986.
From 1987 to 1998, the company paid seven civil penalties totaling about $42,500 for violating air and water pollution laws. In 1998, it pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was fined $65,000 for a 1995 incident involving violating the federal Clean Water Act.
In 1998, Smurfit purchased Stone Container Corporation and became Smurfit-Stone, the largest producer of cardboard boxes and other paperboard packaging materials. In a move to reduce debt and to concentrate on its core business, Smurfit-Stone moved to sell Smurfit Newsprint to KPS Fund.
Despite urgings by union leadership to vote yes on the contract, members of the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers Union refused cuts of about 17.4 percent in pay and 3.4 percent in benefits (slightly less than originally proposed) in return for one-third ownership of the mill in a first-round vote of 133 to 70.
Union members decided to contact an expert for advice in attempting a total takeover of the company through an ESOP despite the fact that Shapiro proclaimed 100 percent employee ownership "an unrealistic alternative" in the March 15, 2000,Oregonian.
In the end, in late March 2000, three weeks after the first vote, union members voted 104 to 92 to take a 17.4 percent pay and benefit cut in exchange for 35 percent ownership of the mill and representation on its board, and, by May, KPS owned 60 percent of company, mill employees 35 percent, and management the remaining 5 percent.
Blue Heron was incorporated in 2000 and closed in 2011.
"Hoselines were stretched across the highway and
train tracks, and officials asked people to avoid the area around the old mill site to allow firefighters access."