Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Work Started on Big Paper Mill

  • wcu_travel-147.jp2
  • The January 10, 1928, issue of 'The Ruralite' (Sylva, N.C.) contained an article "Work Started on Big Paper Mill", concerning construction of the Sylva Paper Board Company's plant by the Mead Corporation. The paperboard company's operations were intertwined with the operations of the Sylva Tannery Company. In this instance, the tannery utilized chestnut trees, plentiful before a devastating chestnut blight in the 1930s, to obtain tannin in order to tan hides. The new Sylva Paper Board Company was meant to take advantage of the wood chips created in the production of leather. The facility would also be known as the Mead Corporation and now is the recycle-based Jackson Paper Manufacturing.