Port Mellon - 100 years of paper making

One hundred years ago today the machines rumbled into life at the isolated little community of Port Mellon and produced the first paper in BC made from wood. A century later, the successors to those first machines and the hardy pioneers who operated them, continue to roll out paper in the province’s longest surviving pulp and paper mill. The little Pioneer Mill has metamorphosed into a giant plant that dominates the site today.

The story of Port Mellon is interwoven with the generations of people who lived and worked there. It is a story of adventure and enterprise; of the rumblings and regurgitations of a fledgling industry; and of camaraderie and community spirit. It is the story of people who persevered with initiative and enterprise against a backdrop of isolation, rain, and always a pulp mill.

“It is a remarkable achievement to survive for a century,” says HSPP’s President and CEO Mac Palmiere. “We would like to thank all of our employees, owners, customers, suppliers and supporters – past and present – for their contributions to our success.”

Today HSPP operates a Kraft pulp and newsprint mill at Port Mellon, BC with an annual production capacity of 400,000 tonnes of pulp and 230,000 tonnes of newsprint. HSPP is equally owned by Vancouver based Canfor Corporation and Oji Paper Co. Ltd. of Tokyo.