Student Paper
The Paper Mill and the City of Camas: Is Camas Still a Mill Town?
History 469
Washington State University
By Lori-Ann S. Young
In the year 2000, the Columbian reported that “Indeed, Camas has lost its mill-town crutch, and perhaps a tad of its character.”(1) This is an interesting observation, for it was the mill that created Camas, and made it into one of the many typical mill cities that were often cherished and idealized throughout time. For many decades, the mill ensured the survival of the city by employing its men, fostering a sense of community and promoting the businesses of the area. It is apparent now, however, that the city of Camas is no longer the mill town that we would expect given its long history of mill involvement, and yet I cannot entirely believe that this is primarily the mill�s doing. Did Camas change from the sleepy little mill town it was intended to be as the mill grew into a member of one of the largest corporations on the West Coast, and later nationally? Perhaps, perhaps not. In this paper, I will trace this transition, and perhaps shed light on the reasons behind its mythical transformation. Apparently, some would believe, mill towns cannot stay merely mill towns.
Yes, Camas no longer has a population of less than 1,000 persons as it did during the early parts of this century. Yes, Camas no longer has a thriving business district as it once did. Yes, the paper mill has made the transition from single ownership to become a member in a huge international company. But does this mean that Camas is no longer a “mill town”? Yes and No. Yes, because Camas would be capable of sustaining itself as a bedroom community of Portland, Oregon. Yes, because the sense of community, which permeated the early decades of the twentieth century, has vanished. But no, because the Camas mill still remains an integral part of the economy of Camas by employing its citizens and dominating the landscape.
In 1984, Sir James Goldsmith, a British investor, instigated a sale that would end the almost sixty-year ownership of the Camas mill by the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. By 1985, Crown Zellerbach�s pulp and paper mills had effectively transferred ownership to the James River Corporation of Richmond, Virginia, while its timber holdings were bought and retained by Sir James. No longer would the mills be self-sustaining producers of timber. By 1986, one could note the passing of an era; James River took over full ownership of the mill, retiring the original Crown Zellerbach logo and letterhead on all publications across the industry. A later merger would occur in the 1990�s between the new owners of the Camas mill, James River, and the Fort Howard Corporation creating the Fort James Corporation. The merger was designed to allow the two companies to better challenge industry leaders like Kimberly Clark.(2) This then is the mill as we know it today; just one component in an integral web of corporate-owned mills. But how did it get this far? To understand this, we must return to the origin and evolution of the Camas mill.
The Pacific Northwest seemed to be a natural place to put a paper mill. The demand for paper was high because of the few mills on the West Coast requiring that newspaper, in particular, be imported from the East Coast. In this early era, newspapers were one of the only forms of reliable information. Literacy rates were increasing, and the demand for the daily newspaper was escalating.(3) This in itself was adequate incentive to attempt a paper mill, simply for the income it could generate because of demand. Also, the abundance of water and timber resources made Washington and the Northwestern states ideal places to build new mills.(4) Markets and resources allowed for the birth of the paper industry on the West Coast. It is evident how important water was to the functioning of a mill when one observes that the Camas mill�s water consumption in all areas of factory production was greater than the needs of the entire city of Portland.(5) Interestingly enough, the Camas Mill was not the first mill to utilize the plentiful resources of this area.
In 1866, Pioneer Paper Manufacturing Company at Oregon City was established; however, the output at this mill was never more than 3/4 of a ton, and the venture was therefore abandoned. Two years later, Henry Pittock and H.S. Buck opened a mill on the Clackamas River, the Clackamas Paper Manufacturing Company, to supply newsprint to Pittock�s newspaper, the Oregonian. Although the Clackamas mill worked productively, the output was never great enough to supply the newspaper. The Clackamas mill produced 1500 pounds of paper a day and yet struggled to exist because of the inadequate supply of rags and the imperfect methods of using straw in the paper making process. It was decided to close this operation and try to build in a new location because of the inability in locating resources to create paper. Because of the Oregonian�s need for increased supplies of newspaper, as well as the large demand among other regional newspapers for greater amounts of paper, Pittock chose to locate a more suitable and productive site for his mill, and found this on the northern shores of the Columbia River. (6)This new site would provide an adequate location to begin a community to support the mill.
Henry Pittock organized and became the president for the LaCamas Colony Company, which was responsible for determining a proper site to build a new paper mill. Pittock and his associates found that LaCamas was a natural site to build a mill because of the lake, abundant clean water and adequate wood supplies. Its location also permitted a natural power supply because water would flow by gravity toward the Columbia River and generate the necessary waterpower to supply the mill.(7) The site proved adequate, and the paper mill, which was to be the biggest and most modern west of the Rocky Mountains, was built to produce upwards of 3 tons of newspaper per day.(8) This is almost quadruple the amount produced at the Clackamas mill, and the mill proved an immediate, profitable success.
By September 10,1883, the town site of LaCamas was planned by the LaCamas Colony Company around the location of the soon to be constructed mill. There were close to 100,000 tons of brick lying about to be used in the erection of one hundred homes in the area. Indeed, the decision to erect the mill, as well as the desirable location prompted the creation and growth of LaCamas, Washington Territory. Just one year later, the Vancouver Independent heralded the situation at Camas asserting that “there can no longer be a doubt that LaCamas is destined to be a great manufacturing town.”(9) To complete the mill, gangs of men eventually built two dams, which cost $16,000, and dug a 7,000-foot tunnel and ditch to get the water from the lake to the mill. Thirty Chinese immigrants were also hired to build a water flume from LaCamas Lake to the mill.(10) The use of Chinese for manual labor was nothing new to the Northwest, and Henry Pittock had used their labor previously at the Clackamas mill. Hugh McMasters remembered working on clearing the site for the new mill when he was a boy. He remembered that men received 69 cents a day, and boys 59 cents for this backbreaking labor.(11)
All of the effort proved worthwhile, for on April 20, 1884, the articles of incorporation were filed for the Columbia River Paper Co. specifically stating that the paper company was:
Unfortunately, after a promising beginning, a fire of unknown origin swept through the Camas mill in November 1886 with a complete loss of buildings, raw material, and finished product estimated at over $100,000. Many of the undamaged machines were sold to mills located within the region, of which the new paper mill Young�s River Company, at Astoria, Oregon, bought four.(16) In May of 1888, the mill was rebuilt, almost completely fireproof, and with all of the latest machinery and technology. Operations began later that year. It was noted that when the mill was running again, the employment would add to the present population of LaCamas.(17) The mill was such an integral part of the Camas economy, that as it grew and developed, so too, did the community mirror that growth and development in its size and function.
Throughout these early decades of the mill’s operation, conditions on the job were relatively dangerous. Accidents were common, and pay was low. There were no child labor laws in effect at that time, although the employment of children seems somewhat less common than other industrial areas. Ned Self, an early worker at the mill, remembers long hours at 12 years of age. Charles Mckever, another mill employee recalls eleven-hour shifts, seven days a week. He lost an arm in the mill, a common hazard among papermill employees. There was no vacation time and it was common for workers to receive as little as $2 per hour as late as 1906.(18)
While the creation of the Columbia River Company produced a thriving community in support of the new mill, this was not the only mill and community being created at this time. Numerous other mills were popping up across the Pacific Northwest, and to fully understand the network of relations that was soon to occur due to numerous mergers across the industry, it is necessary that we view the development of the rest of the regional industry as well. Around the turn of the twentieth century, a number of mills were operating within the Pacific Northwest, many of which would become joined by the mergers that would begin to happen in 1905. In 1887, a mill at Astoria, Oregon, Young�s Mill, was incorporated with four machines that had been saved from the fire at the Camas mill. Young�s Mill produced five tons of paper a day, but went out of business in 1904 due to the increased competition for markets and supplies. In 1888, a new mill was constructed at West Linn, Oregon, which was owned by the new Willamette Pulp and Paper Company. One year later, Crown Paper Company opened another mill at Oregon City. A mill opened in 1890 in Lebanon, Oregon. Thus, by 1890, the three principal companies that would become the Crown Zellerbach Corporation — Columbia River (Camas), Willamette Pulp and Paper Co. (West Linn) and Crown Paper Company (Oregon City) — were in business.(19) It is this corporation that would continue to build and shape the relationship between these principal mills, and the communities in which they were located.
However, all was not financial productivity at the Camas plant. Because of the economic scare at the end of the nineteenth century, Columbia River Paper Company almost went out of business. An industry-wide financial crisis peaked in 1892-93, and led to the ruin of numerous mills across the region; however, Camas was one of the few mills on the West Coast that managed to stay open during this crisis.(20) By December of 1893, Pittock was considering shutting down the mill because of the three months of back pay due to employees. Fortunately for Camas, by leasing the mill to new management, the mill managed to sustain itself and productivity and growth were again resumed.
In 1897, Fred W. Leadbetter, Pittock�s son-in-law decided to lease the Camas mill from the Columbia River Paper Company. Within seven years, he would be instrumental in the merger with Crown Paper Company of Oregon City.(21) In 1905, a merger occurred between the Camas plant, the Columbia River Paper Company and the Crown Paper Company at Oregon City. The new company, Crown Columbia Paper Company greatly expanded the capacity and size of the mill throughout the first decades of the century adding tremendously to the reliance on the community of Camas for a labor source. In 1906, a bag factory was added to the Camas mill, providing the first real employment for women to join the labor force. A year later, the expansion of the mill began in earnest. By 1910, $65,000 had been spent on upgrading the Camas plant. Its production capacity had doubled, and four million pounds of paper were produced in that year. By 1913, Camas had made the switch from steam to electric power, and could boast the largest paper making machine in the world.(22) The first of the three large Camas mergers had successfully propelled the Camas plant into a much higher category of production. The move toward an empire had effectively begun. Although the Camas Mill was growing, the position of the community and city as a mill town was still critically evident, and of substantial concern to the company.
In 1906, a merger between the paper plants at West Linn and Lebanon had formed Willamette Pulp and Paper Company. With the establishment of the 1913 tariff by the United States government, Canadian newspaper was able to be imported into the country without a tax levied upon it.(23) Because of this, both the Crown Columbia Paper Company and the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company had been hurt by foreign imports and eastern competition, Willamette and Crown Columbia joined their companies in 1914 to form the Crown Willamette Paper Company. This second great merger is most interesting, in that the principal player, Louis Bloch, had risen from the ranks of the Camas mill as a bag bailer in 1894 at the incredible wage of 7.5 cents per hour to become instrumental in this merger. Later he would become the chairman of the Crown Zellerbach Corporation in 1928.(24) This tactical merger created the second largest paper manufacturer in the country.(25) To achieve this acclaimed status, this newly formed company built and bought a number of new mills, including one in British Columbia in 1914.
Perhaps the era of World War I saw the greatest increase in the paper consumption of the United States, and therefore the greatest increase in the demand for paper and the consolidation of the paper industry. In his summary of the pulp and paper unions of the 1930�s, Robert H. Zeiger notes, “[u]ntil the eve of World War I, major paper producers sought primarily to meet the expanding demand for newsprint,”(26) but this was to change with the greater demand for a broader range of products during and following the war. The need for paper during the war brought great prosperity to the paper industry particularly in the South and the West. Because of increased demand, and the construction of the Panama Canal, a rapid expansion of the industry began. The war needs demanded excess paper for both governmental and civilian publications, while the Panama Canal provided a cheaper and more reliable mode of transportation than every existed before. Both of these factors contributed to the growing demand for paper mills, as well as a rising awareness of the communities that they fostered.
While it is true that World War I ushered in a new era of economic growth for the companies, it also promoted an increase in community support and involvement by the large corporations. As noted by theCamas Post, World War I “reveal[ed] the real heart location of the oft stigmatized and berated �soulless corporation.�” Crown Willamette announced its intention to take care of the servicemen�s families while they were off defending the country, and to guarantee their jobs upon return. (27)The idea of supporting the community, which had allowed the mill�s prosperity, became a driving concept that would last until the next World War. If Camas ever became a mill town, it was during these interim years, which proved the company�s loyalty to the happiness and well being of its employees.
Even the two strikes of 1917 could not diminish the feeling of good will that permeated this employee/employer relationship, although it did strain it. In April of that year, 300 employees announced their intention to strike for a wage adjustment. Although they were non-unionized, the strike remained violence-free; a condition the employers declared was due to the fact that “the men would not jeopardize their chances for success by adopting any such methods.”(28) Unfortunately, this six-day strike was rather fruitless, for the company had already raised wages by 5% only two weeks before. The company realized that due to the war economy, its workers were experiencing drastically increased living expenses, and therefore promised a graduated wage increase and a policy of eight hours of work for ten hours of pay on Saturdays and similar wages for Sundays.(29)
The outcome of the strike was perhaps not what the strikers had expected, and yet the company had done all in its power, at that tumultuous time, to satisfy the worker’s demands in an efficient way. For the striking men, however, all was not lost, for out of this strike a local union was formed. The company did not feel overly threatened by the formation of this union, however they believed that a local committee of mill men together with management could solve issues better, simply because they knew the local issues. In this way, the company hoped to foster a closer relationship between the community of working men and the employers of the Camas mill. The management of Camas strove to create an environment in which management and employee could share grievances and solve the problems and concerns of the workforce. Even though profits were high on the agenda, the feelings of the community were still of value. The Camas Post reported that “[t]he mill people need the men and the men need the mill, and here is trusting that peace and harmony as restored may continue under the new regime.”(30) Unfortunately, for the Camas management, this was a premature assertion.
By October, the strikers were back on the picket line. Among their demands were further wage increases, no full time Sundays, and time and a half for Saturday work, as well as housing for mill employees. By this point, the company was exasperated and concerned. They commented that their wages for skilled work were equal or better to that demanded by the union, and that the real issue was that the Paper Makers Union wanted to take over the mill. (31)The company became incensed at the demands of the union, and the actions of the strikers. By November, Crown Willamette�s mill manager, B.T. McBain announced that the company would no longer take back striking workers accept at pre-strike regulations. Numerous strikebreakers were brought in from across the country, and the mill began working at 75% despite the strike. However, relations between scabs and strikers were tense. As the Camas Post noted, “[i]t is said that many of the men now working at the mill are displeased�as they are not able to go to and from their homes without being annoyed by the strikers who are picketing�.”(32) The action of the bothersome strikers was criticized by the company. McBain announced that “there are some men now concerned in the strike who will not be given work under any consideration. These are those who have abused the company and its management�”(33) The company was still concerned with its relationship with the workers. It was willing to cooperate with the striking men and attempt to meet their needs; however, unnecessary or violent behavior was strictly discouraged.
Even employees began to criticize the duration and actions of the strike. In Oregon City, one employee mockingly asks “Who made Oregon City?�Every one knows it was the mill.”(34) One could, therefore, infer the same response by many workers in Camas. This strike, too, was relatively unfruitful, for within ten months the strike was over, and the men had returned to their jobs on company terms.
One concession that Crown Willamette did agreed to, and rapidly fulfilled was inns in both Camas and West Linn “which the company built and dedicated to its bachelor employees.” These inns were quite popular from the beginning and were places of socialization, gathering, and parties as well as providing rooms for employees to rent. In October 1918, Crown Willamette�s Makin� Paper announced that “the new structure was thrown open to the public, and the people of Camas responded en masse and passed a favorable judgment on this new and handsome institution�”(35) By the sheer turnout of the community, evidently the mill, and its actions were seen as favorable to the community. These inns would go on to serve the needs of the company and the community for over fifty years.
1918 also saw the beginning of a company publication that would last throughout the century under different names. Makin� Paper�s maiden issue appeared in the summer of 1918, and was dedicated to “the employees of the Crown Willamette Paper Company to foster the mutual interests of the employer and the employee and to promote closer cooperation and better work.” Within these issues, workers would be praised for the outstanding work, issues of importance were aired, and the technical issues of paper and pulp making were discussed. The magazine was deemed a compulsory read for all employees of the company; however, I believe the reason for its publication was the sincere effort to create a community of employees based upon the mutual needs and desires of both the company and its employees. As the slogan implores, it was an attempt to foster better working relations. The company did not want to be seen as placing themselves upon a higher pedestal than the employees. The publication was a public announcement, by the company, that this was a cooperative effort between company and community.
The 1920�s saw numerous wage increases for Camas workers as well as an investment opportunity for the Crown Willamette employees. On October 19, 1923, the company announced its intention to create a stock and savings plan for all employees who have been with the company more than one year. Louis Bloch, president of Crown Willamette, asserted the purpose of the stock option was to foster “mutually satisfactory relationships between employers and employees [as] essential both to the efficiency and prosperity of the company, and to the welfare and happiness of its employees.” By so doing, the company asserted that its employees would learn the ability to save, to become thrifty and have a stake in the financial well being of the company. Numerous employees at the different plants warmly accepted the five-year plan.(36) Crown Willamette was continuing its policy of community support and the encouragement of a mill town atmosphere. It was taking care of its employees� needs and financial concerns and also promoting its own self-interest. If the employees owned a portion of the company, then they would be more prone to productive labor practices and more willing to work for the profits that they would soon be sharing.
The Camas mill could also boast the first Kraft mill on the West Coast in 1925. Kraft paper was an unbleached paper used for butcher wrapping, assorted types of bags and numerous other needed products. The Kraft process was important to the region because it utilized the timber lands of the company including hemlock and white fir. The Camas Post championed its necessity by pronouncing “the new Kraft mill�while it has a tendency at times for emitting unsavory odors, has a promising future in the commercial paper field.”(37) Because of the heavy reliance on imported pulp, the mill would become prosperous and needed. Over 400,000 tons of pulp were imported into the U.S. and with only two Kraft mills in operation on the West Coast in 1927, Camas, and Crown Willamette, would reap the benefits.
In 1928, Zellerbach Corporation, one of the largest companies on the West Coast acquired the stock of Crown Willamette and the ensuing merger created the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. The Zellerbach Corporation had experienced a small start, similar to that of the Camas mill. Anthony Zellerbach had migrated to California in the middle 1800�s and saved enough to open his own paper distribution company in 1876. Ten years later the company was worth over $20,000, and by 1925, he and his sons had expanded rapidly into the paper production business and Zellerbach Corporation had assets of more than $27 million.(38) Zellerbach�s ambition to create an adequate paper distribution system, as well as control the production of the paper led to the numerous mergers that would ultimately create one of the largest paper companies in the United States. By the 1930�s, Crown Zellerbach was the strongest paper company on the West Coast, and the second strongest in the United States with assets totaling over $102 million. They produced over 2,500 tons of paper per day in 12 mills, and due to this strong position, were able to control the price of paper on the West Coast.(39) The period of time in which Zellerbach merged with Crown Willamette is perhaps the pivotal moment in the history of the Camas mill. Zellerbach, while committed to profit making, was also conscious of the community and the local mills. He was both innovative and conservative and did all in his power to both raise the level of community involvement within the mill, and to increase the profit making potential of the mill.
While Zellerbach�s merger with the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company was beneficial to both Camas and the Zellerbach Corporation, it was not without substantial controversy. The merger stirred national concerns because the newly formed company would monopolize production. In 1934, the Federal Trade Commission questioned the merger as a violation of the Anti-Trust Law, but took no action.(40) Despite this, due to the large size of the companies involved in the merger, it took over nine years to complete the merger, and Camas continued to be know as Crown Willamette throughout this process. Despite the lengthy merger process, Camas worked productively throughout this time. Ultimately, the merger expanded the market for Camas worldwide.
One of the first steps that Zellerbach took at the Camas mill was to cancel the newspaper production in 1930. This was done because Canadian newsprint had been able to enter the United States tariff free since 1913. By 1935, Canadian production was responsible for 63% of the newspaper bought in the United States.(41) By removing the newspaper manufacturing, Camas was able to become the largest specialty mill in the world with the potential to create over 400 kinds of different paper. Camas led the Zellerbach Corporation�s other mills in production with 630 tons of paper and 700 tons of pulp per day.(42)
By the 1930�s, Robert Zieger, author of Rebuilding the Pulp and Paper Worker�s Union, noted that “the primary pulp and paper sector was highly integrated, consolidated, and heavily capitalized.” In effect, the industry was dominated by powerful financiers who had the capital available to own numerous companies. There were very few independently owned paper mills in the region, due to two very important facts. First, the capital required to continually upgrade mills to keep them at their highest productivity level was staggering, and second, large companies controlled and dominated the market by the policy of fixing prices, in which the smaller companies could not economically compete.(43) The era of small business was effectively over, ushering in the new era of big money, large companies and new labor policies. However, it was still apparent that most of the mills across the Pacific Northwest were located in towns of 25,000 people or less.(44) Camas was much smaller than this, with a population of fewer than 2,000 individuals. The small size of Camas still provided an air and atmosphere of company/community cooperation and that small mill town feel, even though the web of relations that Camas was now a member of was nationwide.
By 1932, Camas mill had become an important part of the Crown Zellerbach empire. The Camas Post put their employees to work tallying the resource consumption of the mill. The mill used yearly a staggering 120 million kilowatts of electricity, 180,000 quarts of oil to lubricate the fourteen machines it possessed, and 40 million gallons of water. The mill was also consuming 77 million board feet of lumber annually, but this was adequately supplied by the large land holdings and timber resources of the company.(45)Crown Zellerbach owned 500,000 acres of timber and had a policy of buying and acquiring cut over lands, and other private lands which it believed would be sufficient to permanently supply the pulp plants in the region — West Linn, Lebanon and Ocean Falls in British Columbia, as well as Camas.(46) No longer was Camas the self-contained 2,600 acres that were originally bought by Pittock, but now a key part of a nationally recognized company. Despite its large size, the company would prove an even greater commitment to the ideas of community and employee well being in the thirties and forties. Both the depression, and World War II would combine to prove the loyalty and support of employee to company and vice-a-versa.
Even the depression did not rear its ugly head as effectively on the West Coast as it did in other sectors of the paper industry. Nationwide statistics suggested that by 1932 net sales in the paper sector had dropped 44% and employment had fallen 16%.(47) Camas did not feel this as thoroughly as the statistic suggests. Except for a 10% reduction in all salaries throughout the company in 1931, Camas and the Crown Zellerbach Corporation remained productive for all but one year of the depression.(48) This is remarkable when one thinks of the havoc that the depression wreaked across the nation. For during this period, individuals lost jobs, businesses, homes and farms. Remarkably, Camas remained one stable area amid the storm.
Not only were the 30�s a decade of unrest because of depression, and a time of increasing community between management and employee, but they were also the years that the Camas mill as we know it today came into being. A huge expansion program was started in the early portion of the decade turning the Camas mill into one of the “world�s most perfect and productive paper mills.”(51)
Out of the Depression also arose the unions, and to Crown Zellerbach�s good fortune, the company did not resist unionization. On the contrary, they, along with Weyerhaeuser, were instrumental in the 1934 Uniform Labor Agreement that recognized the unions and their ability to bargain collectively, instituted a grievance system, and provided for bonuses as well as increased wages.(52) Crown Zellerbach�s primary objective appears to be self-interest; however, the company still recognized the needs of the employees. They knew that if labor was satisfied and happy they would be more willing to increase productivity and profit, and the likelihood of a strike would be less. Raymond M. Miller�s statistical analysis, The Pulp and Paper Industry of the Northwest, asserts that:
The 1930�s also ushered in the era of safety at the Crown Zellerbach mills. A paper mill is perhaps one of the most hazardous places to work. It is said that you could tell a man�s occupation by how many fingers he had remaining. The company enacted goals and incentives to promote a safer working environment, which the local paper, the Camas Post, quickly picked up. In 1931, a one-hundred day no-accident goal was set, which the company believed attainable. The safety superintendent for the Camas mill, M.W. Kincaid championed the cause by saying, “if every employee sees that he himself, is not in an accident, there can be none at all.” Similar news stories were reported throughout the early part of this decade culminating with the company�s policy, as iterated in the Camas Post, that “[n]eatness, cleanliness and order are three cardinal principals of paper mill maintenance strictly adhered to in the Camas mill…the company considers a clean, bright and cheerful mill safer and easier to work in and conducive to the best quality of production.”(55) Not only was the company�s interest at heart here, but a sincere desire for the welfare of the employee seems to be evident as well. Yet the era of peace and goodwill would not last, for the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1942, would overnight change the mill from paper production to ship parts production almost overnight.
The World War II years saw over 25,000 new faces arrive and leave Camas to aid in the war effort. The mill production was changed almost overnight toward the production of large 17 ton rudders to supply Kaiser Shipyards Victory Ship assemblies. Yet, Camas was up to the task, and in 1943, Kaiser commented that it was able to launch three more ships because of the extraordinary efforts of the Camas men and women.(56) Clearly, the men and women at the Camas mill threw themselves behind the war effort, and the company literature of these years supported and encouraged this in full.
There is an immediate shift in the publications put out by the company during these trying years. It was evident that Crown Zellerbach was fully behind the war effort. Their publication, The Paper Maker, heralded the efforts of the over 9,000 employees that had been drafted to aid the war effort overseas. In issue after issue, pictures of Crown Zellerbach�s newly drafted servicemen and brief biographies on their job both at home and abroad were included. Through the publication, the company encouraged workers by writing things such as “in this country, we are sabotaging our own war activities every day of the year by failure to tackle our own sickness and accident problems in a vigorous way” and “with hundreds of men leaving for military service, the industry faced a responsibility of producing pulp and paper for essential war and domestic needs.” Zellerbach motivated and rewarded its employees, both men and women for their valiant effort in the ever important foreign war. Through the company�s effort to muster enthusiasm and support for the war effort, while supporting the new and remaining workers, the company continued to instill its essential community awareness and compassion.
1945 saw a dramatic amount of money, $15 million, poured into Crown Zellerbach�s numerous plants across the Pacific Northwest, including Camas, to improve their output. From this point forward, the company seems to lose its essential community appeal, at least from a public viewpoint. The number of mill programs listed or commented upon in the daily newspaper, as well as the company publication, declines sharply. Profit seems to be a more serious motive throughout the remainder of the ownership of the Camas Plant by Crown Zellerbach. By 1958, Washington was the leading producer of pulp in the nation. Camas could boast that it was the largest mill in Crown Zellerbach�s web, and was producing over 400 kinds of paper products. In the 1960�s, the company was responsible for over 75% of the taxes paid to the city of Camas. Interestingly, however, the number of employees had barely increased from the 1930�s.(57) Most likely, employment did not show a large increase due to innovations in technology that would require fewer workers. Camas was losing its mill town character. Although it was still, in essence, a mill town, the mill was becoming less dominant for factors that probably are not even mill related. These would include the rapid expansion of both Portland and Vancouver and the growing technological industry blooming to the west of Camas.
By the late 1970�s, Crown Zellerbach was huge. They owned 60 mills in nineteen states and four foreign countries. Although the production at Camas was essential, it is easy to see how it could become just another mill in a large chain of ownership, and yet Zellerbach still lauded it. In their company publication, Spotlight, the company congratulated Camas as full of “dedicated, conscientious, innovative people … That has always been-and always will be-Camas� main strength…one of our major assets is the people of Camas.”(58) Perhaps Camas never did lose its mill town appeal, at least for the company representatives, and yet through the tremendous growth of a company, numerous mergers and transactions, Camas has lost some of the flavor that was so essential to its early days. No longer does it have a thriving main street, no longer is it self-sufficient.
The city that originated as a manufacturing center has become a bedroom community for something much larger, and yet this has almost nothing to do with the mill itself. The evolution of the city of Camas, from LaCamas, the town built to sustain the Columbia River Paper Company to the mill as we know it today is complex. Five major mergers have occurred propelling the city into an economic membership with numerous paper towns across the nation. Throughout this process, the mill management has been devoted both to community building as well as financial gain. Perhaps the most basic of relationships propels and enables a mutual growth and maturation between community and mill. The mill recognizes its need for both the workers that Camas can provide, as well as its integral role in the promotion and establishment of the city. The employees, in return, recognize that the company could not exist without their support and cooperation, and also their responsibility to promote and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the mill and their community.
Yes, Camas is still a mill town, or at least it is an excuse for a mill town in the eyes of those who have made it whatever it has become, the employees and the management. The mill looms large on the landscape, still. Although modern advancements in technology-related fields have opened new doors for Camas� workers, creating the appearance that Camas no longer retains its mill town flavor, in reality, it remains such. Zellerbach lauded the characteristics of the Camas workforce, their ability for loyalty and dedication, innovation and conscientiousness. These attributes still remain. Although the economy, size and purpose of Camas may be expanding, the character traits and temperaments instilled in over a century of mill and community cooperation remain.
endnotes
1. Columbian (Vancouver) 23 January 2000.
2. Janet Hall, “History of the Camas Mill” in Clark County History (Vancouver: Fort Vancouver Historical Society, Inc., 1988) , 28-30.; Columbian 1 January 2000; Seattle Times 5 May 1997.
3. John A. Guthrie, The Newsprint Industry: An Economic Analysis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941), 5. ; W. Claude Adams, History of Papermaking in the Pacific Northwest (Portland: Binfords & Mort, Publishers, 1951), 7.
4. Guthrie, 14 ; Robert E. Ficken, The Forested Land: A History of Lumbering in Western Washington(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987) , 173; Adams, 1-2.
5. Roger Randall, Labor Relations in the Pulp and Paper Industry of the Pacific Northwest (Portland: Northwest Regional Council in cooperation with The Bonneville Power Administration, The Pacific Northwest Regional Planning Commission, 1942), 11.
6. Crown Zellerbach, Spotlight (Camas), July 1983; Florence Donnelly, “Oregon’s Second Venture in Papermaking: The Clackamas Mill,” in The Paper Maker 27, no. 1 (1958): 27. Camas Post 7 December 1934.
7. Adams, 8; William D. Welsh, A Brief History of Camas, Washington (Camas: Crown Zellerbach Corporation, 1966), 19; Post Record (Camas) 27 May 70.
8. Crown Zellerbach Spotlight (Camas) July 1983; Adams, 8.
9. Vancouver Independent 7 August 1884; Crown Zellerbach Spotlight (Camas) July 1983; Beverly Wood, “Camas-Washougal, Twin Mill Towns,” In Clark County History (Vancouver: Fort Vancouver Historical Society, Inc., 1987), 96.
10. Post Record (Camas) 27 May 1970; Welsh, 19; Sally Alves, Historical Highlights of the Camas Area (Camas: Self-Published, 1995).
11. Welsh, 19.
12. Vancouver Independent 20 March 1884.
13. Crown Zellerbach Spotlight July 1983; Raymond M. Miller, The Pulp and Paper Industry of the Pacific Northwest, part 3, Statistics of the Pulp and Paper Industry (Portland: War Department Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Office of the Division Engineer North Pacific Division, 1937), 11, 34, 125; Adams, 9.
14.Welsh, 23-25; Beverly Wood, “Camas-Washougal, Twin Mill Towns,” in Clark County History(Vancouver: Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1987), 96.
15. Florence Donnelly, “Camas Paper Mill First in Washington,” in The Paper Maker 29, no 2 (1960): 15.
16. Adams, 10.
17. Camas Post 7 December 1934, Vancouver Independent 11 November 1886, Crown Zellerbach Spotlight(Camas), July 1983; Wood, 96.
18. Bob Beck, “The Paper Wars,” in Clark County History (Vancouver: Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1993), 43.
19. Adams, 10-14.
20. Hall, 23; Donnelly “Camas�first in WA“, 24.
21. Hall, 24; Donnelly “Camas�first in WA“, 26; Adams, 9.
22. Welsh, 24; Wood, 97.
23. Robert H. Zieger, Rebuilding the Pulp and Paper Workers’ Union, 1933-1941 (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1984), 16.
24. Welsh, 21-2.
25. R.O. Hunt, Pulp, Paper and Pioneers: The Story of the Crown Zellerbach Corporation (New York: The Newcomen Society in North America, 1961), 15-6.
26. Zieger, 16.
27. Camas Post 21 July 1916.
28. Camas Post 20 April 1917.
29. Camas Post 27 April 1917.
30. Ibid.
31. Camas Post 2 November 1917
32. Camas Post 23 November 1917; Beck, 45.
33. Camas Post 23 November 1917.
34. Camas Post 30 November 1917
35. Makin’ Paper 1, no. 6 (1918), no. 4 (1918); Crown Zellerbach Spotlight (Camas) July 1983.
36. Camas Post 19 October 1923.
37. Camas Post 23 September 1927
38. Hunt, 10; Adams, 20; Ficken, 173.
39. Miller (part 3), 12, 45, 78; Hunt, 8-9.
40. Guthrie, 70.
41. Raymond M. Miller, The Pulp and Paper Industry of the Pacific Northwest, part 1 (Portland: War Department Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Office of the Division Engineer North Pacific Division, 1937), 19; Zeiger, 16.
42. Adams, 22.
43. Zieger 15, 20, 37; Ficken 173;
44. Randall, 28.
45. Camas Post 9 September 1932.
46. Raymond M. Miller, The Pulp and Paper Industry of the Pacific Northwest, part 2, The Pulpwood Resources of the Lower Columbia River Area (Portland: War Department Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Office of the Division Engineer North Pacific Division, 1937), 45; Adams, 29.
47. Zieger, 17.
48. Camas Post 24 April 1931; R.O. Hunt, 21.
49. The Post Record (Camas) 10 July 1958.
50. The Camas Post 7 December 1934; Hall, 26; Miller (part 1), 151.
51. Camas Post 7 December 1934.
52. Zieger, 90-1, 138; Hunt, 22.
53. Miller (part 1), 121.
54. Camas Post 9 September 1932, 7 December 1934.
55. Camas Post 11 September 1931, 9 September 1932.
56. Hall, 27; The Post Record 10 July 1958.
57.Columbian 10 October 1970; The Post Record 10 July 1958, 12 July 1945; Welsh, 29.
58.Crown Zellerbach Spotlight (Camas) July 1983.
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