If you follow Milmar Buildings on social media, you will see pictures of a Milmar crew working on the Vicksburg Paper Mill Project. This is a one of a kind restoration project of a historic site and we are proud to be a part of saving these buildings.
Vicksburg, Michigan is the home of the Vicksburg Paper Mill. First built as the Lee Paper Company in 1905, it was a rag content paper mill. Vicksburg was a central location in the Kalamazoo Valley Paper Region with two railroads and a good water supply. Height production was 35,000 pounds of paper per day. Worn out clothes and rags were used as raw materials to make fine writing paper. The various cloth was shredded, cooked down, and finally processed into paper.
Rag content paper is made from cotton textile remnants. It was common for paper to be 1oo percent cotton rag. Today, most paper
is made from a cotton fiber or a combination of both rag cotton and cotton fiber.
During the Great Depression, the mill remained open and management spread out the hours so as many employees could work and make money. The mill also devoted much of its production to the war effort in World War II. The post-war era brought success and expansion. In 1959 the Lee Paper Company merged with Timber Co. to be the Simpson-Lee Paper Company, to be shortened to Simpson Paper Company. Production shifted from producing paper from rag cotton to making paper from wood pulp. The Simpson Paper Company was bought by the Fox River Paper Company in 1996. The once bustling mill was shut down in March of 2001.
From its start, the Lee Paper Company had a positive impact on the community of Vicksburg and the surrounding area. It provided many with jobs and way to make a good living. Workers moved to Vicksburg to work at the mill. Because of this, the housing industry expanded. Because of a large donation from the mill, the Vicksburg Foundation was started in 1943.
To Be Continued…..
Read next week of how a pole barn company will help restore the derelict buildings of the Vicksburg Paper Mill!
An Aerial video of the property by Kalamazoo Aerial Media
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2GvsFMCRNE
If you like to read about the history of buildings, check out this post from our blog: A Brief History of Pole Barns in America