Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Workmen finishing the main smokestack

  • hl_mss21-01_01_11_092.jpg
  • Workmen are putting the finishing touches on the main smokestack in this late summer 1907 view. The concrete chimney towers over the 100-feet high soda digester house, with three smaller buildings in the foreground (L to R) evaporator building, causticizing room, and reclaiming room. This photograph is part of the Alan & Stephen Sellars Collection, a collection of photographs depicting the construction of the Champion Fibre Company paper mill in Canton, North Carolina. The mill, under construction from 1905 until 1908, was, for a time, the largest paper mill in the world. Much of the description information came from Carroll C. Jones and his book “Thomson’s Pulp Mill: Building the Champion Fibre Company at Canton, North Carolina – 1905 to 1908” where more details can be found.