The Androscoggin Mill is a pulp and paper mill in Jay, Maine. At its peak, 1,500 workers were employed in the facility. In February 2023, management announced that the mill would permanently close in March 2023.
Construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1965. The mill replaced the Riley Mill, which was located less than a mile away. The largest paper company in the world at the time, International Paper, built it. It was named for the nearby Androscoggin River. [1]
In 1987–88, 1,200 mill workers and members of the United Paperworkers' International Union went on strike against the company, which was demanding wage reductions and other givebacks despite record profits. The mill eventually reopened with permanent replacements. [2]
In 2006, International Paper sold the plant to Verso Holdings, LLC, and 1,000 people worked in the mill at that time. In 2015, Verso laid off 300 workers. A year later, it filed for bankruptcy. In 2017, it laid off an additional 300 people and idled a machine. In April 2020, a wood pulp digester exploded, destroying the mill's pulp machines. [3] Pixelle Specialty Solutions, which had purchased the mill two months prior in February, decided not to rebuild. In September 2022, the company decided to permanently close the mill. [4] In February 2023, Pixelle announced that the mill would cease production no later than March 9, 2023. [5] [6]
Auburn is a city in south-central Maine, within the United States. The city serves as the county seat of Androscoggin County. The population was 24,061 at the 2020 census. Auburn and its sister city Lewiston are known locally as the Twin Cities or Lewiston–Auburn (L–A).
Lewiston is the second most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine, with the city's population at 37,121 as of the 2020 United States Census. The city lies halfway between Augusta, the state's capital, and Portland, the state's most populous city. It is one-half of the Lewiston–Auburn Metropolitan Statistical Area, commonly referred to as "L/A." or "L-A." Lewiston exerts a significant impact upon the diversity, religious variety, commerce, education, and economic power of Maine. It is known for having an overall low cost of living, substantial access to medical care, and a low violent-crime rate. In recent years, the city of Lewiston has also seen a spike in economic and social growth. While the dominant language spoken in the city is English, it is home to a significant Somali population as well as the largest French-speaking population in the United States while it is second to St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, in percentage of speakers.
Livermore is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States, formerly in Oxford County, Maine. The population was 2,127 at the 2020 United States Census. It is included in both the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan New England City and Town Area. High schools students from Livermore attend Spruce Mountain High School in neighboring Livermore Falls. Livermore is known for The Norlands, the Washburn family home.
Jay is a town in Franklin County, Maine, United States. Jay was included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. The population was 4,620 at the 2020 United States Census. Jay includes the village of Chisholm.
Luke is a town in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, located along the Potomac River just upstream of Westernport. Known originally as West Piedmont, the town is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 85 as of the 2020 census.
Berlin is a city along the Androscoggin River in Coös County in northern New Hampshire, United States. It is the northernmost city in New Hampshire and the only city in Coös County. The population was 9,425 at the 2020 census, down from 10,051 at the 2010 census.
The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 39,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Androscoggin River is a river in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire, in northern New England. It is 178 miles (286 km) long and joins the Kennebec River at Merrymeeting Bay in Maine before its water empties into the Gulf of Maine on the Atlantic Ocean. Its drainage basin is 3,530 square miles (9,100 km2) in area. The name "Androscoggin" comes from the Eastern Abenaki term Ammoscongon, which referred to the entire portion of the river north of the Great Falls in Lewiston, Maine. The Anglicization of the Abenaki term is likely an analogical contamination with the colonial governor Edmund Andros.
The Colisée, formerly Androscoggin Bank Colisée, Central Maine Youth Center, Central Maine Civic Center, and Lewiston Colisee, is a 4,000 capacity multi-purpose arena, in Lewiston, Maine, United States that was built from 1956 to 1958 and opened in the latter year to replace the Dominics Regional High School Arena and was initially constructed and operated by the Catholic parish of SS. Peter and Paul. It was used as a replacement venue for the boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston in 1965.
The Sartell Paper Mill, officially the Verso Paper Sartell Mill, was a paper mill located in the city of Sartell in the U.S. state of Minnesota, operating from 1905 until a disastrous explosion in 2012.
The International Paper strike was a strike begun in 1987 by paper mill workers affiliated with the United Paperworkers' International Union (UPIU) at a number of plants in the United States owned by the International Paper (IP) company. The strike extended into 1988 and the company hired permanent replacements for workers. The plant in Maine, known as the Androscoggin Mill, attracted national attention during this period. Ultimately, the strike ended with strikers defeated in their demands and permanently replaced with non-unionized workers. In 2006, International Paper sold this plant to Verso Holdings, LLC. In March 2023, the mill permanently closed.
The United Paperworkers' International Union (UPIU) was a labor union representing workers involved in making paper, and later various industrial workers, in the United States and Canada.
Verso Corporation, now Billerud Americas Corporation, was a North American producer of coated papers including coated groundwood, coated freesheet, and specialty products. The company restructured in 2016 following Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Verso Corporation operated two paper mills in the U.S. In 2021, the company had approximately 1,700 employees.
Newton Falls is a hamlet of 400, located within Town of Clifton in Saint Lawrence County, New York, United States. The hamlet is located within the Adirondack Park. The area is known in part for its ZIP code, which is 13666.
The Maine Central Railroad Rumford Branch is a railroad line in Maine now operated as part of the CSX Transportation system. The Rumford Branch leaves the mainline at Leeds Junction and continues northwest up the Androscoggin River valley, passing through Livermore Falls and terminating at Rumford. The branch comprises the remaining trackage of three earlier branches:
Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor is located in the Bates Mill Historic District, in Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine.
Hugh Joseph Chisholm I was a Canadian industrialist who later became a citizen of the United States. He was born in Chippawa, Canada West, to parents of Scottish ancestry. His early years as an entrepreneur in the news distribution business provided a foundation for his later accomplishments in the pulp and paper industry. His founding and leadership of pulp and paper, fibre-ware, and light and power companies as well as banks and railways made him a dominant figure in Maine industry. His legacy went beyond his reputation as a capitalist, however; he created the first forest management program for International Paper Company and developed a planned community for the workers in his mills which was a model for the nation.
Livermore Falls is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,060 at the 2020 census. It is included in both the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan New England City and Town Area. High school students in Livermore Falls attend Spruce Mountain High School.
Fort Andross, also known as Fort George and Cabot Mill, was initially established as a trading post and later converted into a historic garrison by the colonial British Empire as a defensive measure against the Wabanaki Native Americans who were allied with France during King William's War (1688–1697). It was situated next to Brunswick Falls, on the Androscoggin River in Brunswick, Maine. During the war, the fortification was destroyed, rebuilt, and renamed Fort George in 1715. Once the Native American wars came to an end, the fort was abandoned.
44°30′31″N70°14′24″W / 44.5086°N 70.2401°W